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Igniting my heart's check engine light

Marisca goes from thinking she has to kill time, to wishing she had more
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The Sticky Files

Last week flew by. I am not even sure where it went.

Getting back into the school routine hasn’t been as smooth as I had hoped and I had a day when my car was stuck in the shop for an hour. An hour may not seem like a long time but when you are running a new business, working a part-time job while being a stay-at-home mom, there aren’t a lot of free hours in a day.

Most of my days are scheduled to a tee and I haven’t been leaving myself any contingency fund of time. So when my check engine light in my car went on the other day, I almost cried.

Thankfully, the dealership could sneak me in and I dropped off my car. I had my toddler with me and wasn’t sure what to do for the next hour while someone looked at my vehicle.

While I was offered a car to borrow from the shop, the thought of switching over the carseat (and witnessing the horrors that would likely fall out from the bottom of the seat) was all too much for an hour.

So, we walked down to a coffee shop and got a donut and just sat and talked. That took about ten minutes so then we walked around town, luckily it was a beautiful day. My toddler and I just spent some quality time together that wouldn’t have happened had my car not needed to go into the shop.

I went from thinking, I have an hour to kill to I had a lovely hour well spent.

Growing up, my dad always told us how much he hated that saying. He would always say that we never needed to kill time.

Time is precious and shouldn’t be wasted. I never really understood what he was talking about until I had children and realized time just slips away so quickly. Every hour is precious. Even those spent waiting for your car to be fixed (or in my case diagnosed — which means I’ll have to return it soon.)

When I told my daughter we’ll have to bring it back in next week to actually get fixed, her eyes lit up and she said, "and get another donut?"

Which I took to mean, "and get to spend another hour together?"

So, while it was my car’s check engine light on, I think my heart’s check engine light was on too.



Marisca Bakker

About the Author: Marisca Bakker

Marisca loves the outdoor lifestyle Smithers has to offer
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