Mum's thoughts on 'moof' time with her daughter will make you cherish the little things
With motherhood comes an endless to-do list full of chores to keep your day running as smoothly as possible.
It keeps the kids on track, and you can get the house cleaned and meals prepared, one item ticked at a time.
But more often than not, we end up concentrating on that list so hard we forget about the small things.
Small things like spending five minutes with our children to tell them their painting is lovely, or the dandelion they gave you was the nicest flower you have ever seen.
Sara Estabrooks knows this; she knows how easy it is to make sure the kids are OK and go about your chores, not really giving the kids full attention.
When her toddler gave her 'moof', her special word for kisses, Sara was reminded of those little moments, the ones you cherish for the rest of your life.
"She's her own girlie. She has an amazing personality. She's full of fire and sass and big emotions."
"Sometimes I miss the sweet moments with her. Because when she's happy, I get busy doing the chores. And when she's grumpy, I find out what's wrong and do my best to fix it."
Mum makes it all better, and then gets back to work, just like everyone else.
However, what the mum-of-two has realised, is that she is missing out on so much with her daughter: "I miss out on the real her when I do this."
"The whole her. I get burned out because of all the negative interactions."
Wanting to change this, Sara took five minutes out of her day to catch up with her baby girl; playing with leaves, sitting outside and giving each other some 'moofs', all the while smiling and laughing.
"Sometimes all I see is the passing showers. But if I stop and pay attention, I'll see that God has blessed me with this little ray of sunshine."
"Today and every day."
Our kids are more important than our clean floors – bear this in mind, because when you blink they'll be 18 and you won't believe how quickly life has passed by.
The smallest moments are the best.