Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Taking time to celebrate

I'm working though Restless by Jennie Allen.  It's a wonderful book that is taking me through a journey to figure out what I should be doing now.  Very reflective and a great thing for me at this point.

Yesterday I wrote about feeling apprehension about taking my youngest to a new MDO as well as dropping off the job application.  Both events went well.  #3 loves his new teacher and even had a friend already in the class.  He's very excited about his new school for fall.

I love blue bonnets.  Here in Texas, they bloom for a few weeks every spring.  When I married, I had a good friend take pictures of me in my wedding dress and cowboy boots in the blue bonnets.  We were a sight--Kathryn, my dear, sweet friend doing dress control so that the flowers or grass wouldn't stain my dress (my mom's nightmare) while my friend snapped photos.  The pictures are some of my favorites.

Anyway, when we went to my new school to drop off my application, there were blue bonnets!  Tons of them!  I chose to see that God was using His beauty to remind me that seasons change, children grow, opportunities for growth come our way and He is still God;  He doesn't change.  A dear friend, Kimberly, sent me a text with verses from the Bible that reminded me of the same thing.  God is very good.

I believe worship means to take a moment and see the fingerprints of God.  I worship corporately through music at church often and love it, but I also worship when I see blue bonnets and am reminded of God's love.  I worship when I laugh with my sons as we plan our water gun wars this summer.  The more I worship the closer I am to God.  I remember hearing before that thankfulness should be like the sound track for our daily lives.  What a lovely thought.

Anyway.  As I'm working through Restless, yesterday the challenge was to journal a highlight from each life stage.  Moments that made me proud and satisfied.

This particular moment isn't one--#3 should be in "room time" in which he doesn't nap anymore (boo) but he's expected to play by himself while I have some me time.  He just came in my room to let me know I need to get the plunger to work on the toilet in the boy bathroom, but he can talk me through it because he's seen Dad do it before.  Lovely.

I had some time to myself yesterday and over a cup of coffee I reflected on favorite moments.  What a wonderful exercise.  It was kind of hard to get started, but once I got going I was surprised by how wonderful and rich my list was.  I thought I would share a handful here.  I don't know why, but we don't seem to be a culture that celebrates the little moments often.  It's too bad.  The little moments are the ones that make us who we are.  And yet the moments like the toilet are the ones we seem to talk about.  Hmmm.

Here are a few of my moments:
0-6 years:  swinging on the swingset, swimming at the city pool at my Grandma's house, having blueberry muffins for special occasions

7-12 years:  playing in piano recitals, winning 5th grade class president

13-18 years:  being in the high school musicals, excelling in drama and speaking competitions, enjoying time with the girls in my youth group at church camp, mission trips and spending time together, going to OU basketball games with my dad

19-24 years:  getting my first job, becoming fluent in Spanish after lots of hard work in grad school, living in Spain for a year, meeting and falling in love with Aaron, becoming a teacher

25+:  loving teaching--the joy of watching children grow, the fun of bonding a classroom family together, the laughter, the challenge of helping each child reach his/her potential--, the moment when I knew I was going to be a mom, the moment when we saw we were going to have twins, learning to lean on God and admit I wasn't "enough" to do all this on my own, figuring out that God never promised me that this life would be a rose garden, having good friends to be real with and share the ugly moments with, tent camping with my family, seeing the pride on son #2's face when he figured out how to use the potty the first time, watching #1's pride as he told Aaron, "Dad, I can read!", singing "Low in the Grave He Lay" during breakfast with the boys last Easter...

And the list could go on, but room time is at an end. God is good.  How beautiful to take a moment to celebrate some of the good moments I've been blessed with.  The next assignment is to write about deep hurts.  I'm taking a few deep breaths before I delve down that path.

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