Marbles, Beads and 780 More Saturdays

5

One Saturday morning about a year ago, I cleaned out my email inbox and I stumbled upon a very popular blog post 3900 Saturday Mornings & 1,000 Marbles – Enjoy Every One. I was reading the story on my phone in between feeding my then two-year daughter’s breakfast and there it happened: I had one of those moments…I was completly moved.

The post is about a man adding up how many Saturdays he had left in his life. He came up with about 1000 Saturdays left, so he filled a container full of 1000 marbles and pulled one marble out every Saturday to help remind him to live that Saturday to the fullest. The thought of adding up how many Saturdays in my life was so eye opening to me and made me think about the meaning of life and how we choose to spend our time. I did the math, got my number and was determined to make every Saturday from then on out the best it could be.

Then, as so often happens, by a few weeks later I had forgotten about the story of 3900 Saturday mornings and carried on with my hectic, busy life.

Fast-forward a year, again on a Saturday morning I sat down to read another post – this time right here on Scottsdale Moms Blog! – titled It Goes By So Fast and while reading this I couldn’t stop thinking about the 3900 Saturdays story. I couldn’t help but think: if time does seem to go by so fast with our children, how can we slow it down? Or at least how can make sure we are living every moment to the fullest?

{Yes, I know what you are thinking: “not all moments of our childrens’ lives would we want to slow down;” but there are many Saturdays that fly by with a wink of an eye that we wish we could go back and grab hold so tightly.}

I went to the math again, this time I multiplied 18 years times 52 (weeks per yer) and came up with 936, which is the number of Saturdays we have with our little bundles of joy before they become adults. I then did the math for my almost-three-year-old to figure how many more Saturdays I have with her before she turns 18 years old and found out I have 780 more Saturdays left with my precious daughter at home. This is so moving to me and this exercise changed how I think not just of the Saturdays I spend with my family, but how I choose to spend all my days with my family.

My husband and I both work and are often in and out of the house during the weekdays. We make it a point to have dinner at the dinner table together and we have our evening routines, but I have to be real on this one: it can sometimes feel like ships passing in the night and sometimes our Saturdays are the one of the only days that ground us as a family.

The question is very important…am I “living to work” or am I “working to live”? And I think the answer can be very granular, so in my mind I choose to focus on the one word LIVE, and to LIVE life to the fullest however I can to the best of my ability.

And now I count all my Saturday mornings with my daughter…

I purchased some pearl craft beads from the local craft store and filled a glass jar with the 780 beads. My plan is every Saturday following her her third birthday I am taking a bead out of the jar. I want to save the beads and make a long necklace of some sorts to give to her on her 18th birthday to symbolize all the wonderful Saturdays we spend together. To symbolize the love-filled moments that can be circular and always strung together on one string.

Do you ever feel like you wish you could stop the clock on your children growing up so fast?

How do you make every Saturday count in your family?

5 COMMENTS

  1. I love the Saturday marble story. Such a fantastic visual, and great way of reminding me…thank you Jenn.

    My greatest fear is not living my life to the fullest…what a beautiful reminder to bring that thought to the time we have with our kids.

    Being intentional is work, but well worth it!

  2. love the symbolism of the gift one day. may we all spend our time wisely not knowing how many pearls we really have! love this. 🙂

Comments are closed.