Don’t get me wrong, I love driving my kids around. It’s a privelage, I get that! But truth be told, sometimes it feels more like a punishment! With 2 busy and active boys in primary school, I recently calculated that I spend 650 minutes a week in traffic with the boys. Granted when I used to work in a corporate environment it was allot more than that, but still, if I just look at the time spend during the school term, not over school holidays and on weekends, that is about 433 hours a year that none of us can ever get back. What could you do with an extra 433 hours a year? Learn another language? Do a diploma course? Finally tidy up your spare room and organise your garage? But because this is the truth about this season in my life and there is no getting around that, I have tried to look at ways to make our time shuttling from place to place count in the most practical but also the most impactful ways possible.
Here are some items that I keep in the car that make the time we spend there more meaningful:
Dental Floss: I know it’s important to floss but I also know 10 year old boys! And if I’m not standing there supervising the every day twice a day teeth brushing session the likelyhood of them blushing is less than zero – can I get an Amen Mommys?! So I keep this handy ziplock of fruity flavoured kiddies flossups in the car and that way I know it gets done! When they slide into the backseat in the morning that is the first thing I pass them!
Sunscreen: This is Africa people, nuff said am I right? We use the stick, so there is no mess!
Zam-buk: Yes, I repeat, this is Africa people! Here this little tin is a cure-all miracle!
Wipes: Because I love my kids but sometimes they are gross. And sometimes they spill stuff.
Memory Verses: One of the best places to teach my kids the bible is the car! Firstly because they can’t get away from me, secondly because they are just as bored as I am when we are in traffic, and thirdly because some of the stuff on radio nowadays will give any parent sleepless nights. God calls us in Deut 11 v 18 and 19 to fix His word in our hearts and talk about it with our children, when we are going out and when we are coming in. For this we use an amazing little book called “A Solid Foundation – biblical truths our children must know by heart before the age of 12 by Leigh Robinson”.
MES Action meal and shelter vouchers: The number of homeless and destitude people in my city sometimes overwhelms me, but I never want to get to a point of being so hardened by seeing it that it no longer breaks my heart. But it’s often hard to know what to do or what to give to truly help the people we encounter on our daily journey through our city. Because we want to do more than just give something to fill an immediate need, we’ve armed ourselves with these very cool meal and shelter vouchers from MES, an amazing organisation with a heart for the city. Head to their website if you want to order these handy vouchers.
Pamflets: I don’t know who said it, but it’s true: “Success is where preparation and opportunity meet”. And because my husband owns his own business, I keep a stack of pamflets in my car so that, should I encounter someone in need of his services, I am prepared with information. It’s a great way to teach the boys to look for opportunities. Now very often when we have parked at the shops or at the gym, they will notice a car without a numberplate or even an expired disk and they will say, “Hey mom, this car needs one of dad’s pamflets!”. It’s a great way to involve them in the smallest steps of commerce and a great way to help them see that our family income is not some phantom ambigious deposit that just randomly materialises monthly. If you have your own business, make sure you are prepared even on the school run to encounter a potential customer, and make sure your kids see you hussle!
Tracts: No mommas, don’t freak out! I am not one of those people who just randomly hands these out to strangers! Our path through this city is often the same every week, which means we encounter the same people, next to the cricket field, at the greengrocer, on street corners, over coffee counters, the drycleaners and at the gym.
Every one of those opportunities to familiarity are opportunities for Jesus to enter in, and I don’t just want my spirit to be ready when this happens, but I also want something in my hand when it does!
Sometimes it just takes a few tweaks to take something supremely ordinary and mundane like the daily school run and turn it into a way of redeeming the time, expanding our influence and loving our city!