I have had a day where every call I placed ended in a negative response. It gets a little discouraging. Here I am all gung ho to get out there and do some good and it just seems like nobody else wants to cooperate. So I sit here with my computer, my husband downstairs watching Jay Leno on TV, and I wonder... what do people DO all the time? Something is keeping us busy, tied up, occupied, and otherwise engaged. At least that is what everyone told me today. "I'm sorry I am just otherwise engaged..." I have 3 children who are small and very busy. My day begins at 5:45am when I wake to do my ritual 3 mile walk with my neighbor. Upon arrival at home I retrieve the Wall Steeet Journal, water the flowers in front of the house, go inside and start breakfast. (I know you are thinking - gross, you don't shower... I am being honest here...it is not top priority in my life). At that point the three princesses are released from their towers and I go up to make sure plaid pants aren't worn with flowery shirts, and that everyone has clean panties on. We get the clothes on and the mass exodus happens, with everyone carefully holding onto the railing as we go down the stairs (Of course we all hold the rail - what kind of mother do you think I am?). Downstairs the princesses climb up into their thrones, and I prepare the regular breakfast of oatmeal with some kind of fruit in it, sweetness, and creaminess. We all eat together. At that point my husband joins us to say his goodbyes and shuttle off to work. The girls clean up breakfast, I throw laundry loads into the washer and dryer, then we head up the stairs to our loft where we do school. (We are homeschoolers and I am doing small amounts of school in the summer, just to get a little bit ahead of the game.) We work on school together (3rd grade, kindergarten, and preschool all at the same table) then about 11 am head down and I do lunch prep. Just before that I throw a load in the washer and dryer, and haul the clean load over to the couch to fold...
You are getting the idea here. I keep busy all day long. And somehow I am able to teach Sunday school, lead a childcare program for preschoolers, be involved in Bible Study, and still maintain a marriage and a reasonable amount of sanity. So what do other people do with their time?
I am just praying we have the volunteers we need to care for the children, hold the babies, love the toddlers, and assure those mommies that we can do it with a measure of grace and tenderness that they can trust.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Plaster of Paris
I love children, particularly my own. There are times, though, when I wish I could loan them out for the afternoon on Freecycle to some kind family that appreciated all that pent up creativity and energy.
My second princess, today, decided to dust her room, Amelia Bedelia fashion. With plaster of paris. Oh, and she thought including her sister in the process, both dusting and being dusted, was a great idea and a shining way to SHARE. Don't get me wrong. I love when they choose to share. But today, and with plaster of paris? AGH! After I vacuumed everything, wiped down as much as I could find (Did I find everything?) and scrubbed two tiny white girls in the tub, grumbling all the while, I tossed the crowd of them into bed. And here I sit. My hands are wrinkled and dry - about 2 weeks of deep conditioning night treatments might get them back from old lady condition.
It is days like this that I feel alone and tired. I feel unappreciated and wonder if giving up my shining career (honestly, it was fueled with potential) was REALLY the best choice. I feel entitled to complain and grumble, be grumpy and antagonistic. I want to give up, call my husband to come home, and go back to bed - or on a trip to California.
I am reminded of a MUCH greater person who could have felt this way. Jesus gave up heaven - being in the presence of God's glory at all times - to come here. He took on a body that was small and human, potentially ill, and easily harmed. He came to show us the way to know God... to talk to Him... to make things just like they had been in the Garden, so long ago, when people walked and talked with their Maker. Jesus came to BE THE WAY. And all the people around Him did was fight over who was greatest, misunderstand what He was trying to tell them, value money more than people and push children away because they thought Jesus was WAAAY TO IMPORTANT to take time out for them. During all of that Jesus lived His life with love, kindness, and with a tenderness and humility that drew people - and children - to himself.
Jesus did it... Overcame sin and selfishness for me. He died so that I would be free from the restraints sin puts on me. The way I live will either reflect that or cast shame on me because I am not aware of the price paid for the freedom I have.
Ephesians 3:16-19
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
I can love these children who mess things up sometimes. I can be patient with them and let them know they are much more important than things or dinner or carpet or wasted plaster of paris.
My second princess, today, decided to dust her room, Amelia Bedelia fashion. With plaster of paris. Oh, and she thought including her sister in the process, both dusting and being dusted, was a great idea and a shining way to SHARE. Don't get me wrong. I love when they choose to share. But today, and with plaster of paris? AGH! After I vacuumed everything, wiped down as much as I could find (Did I find everything?) and scrubbed two tiny white girls in the tub, grumbling all the while, I tossed the crowd of them into bed. And here I sit. My hands are wrinkled and dry - about 2 weeks of deep conditioning night treatments might get them back from old lady condition.
It is days like this that I feel alone and tired. I feel unappreciated and wonder if giving up my shining career (honestly, it was fueled with potential) was REALLY the best choice. I feel entitled to complain and grumble, be grumpy and antagonistic. I want to give up, call my husband to come home, and go back to bed - or on a trip to California.
I am reminded of a MUCH greater person who could have felt this way. Jesus gave up heaven - being in the presence of God's glory at all times - to come here. He took on a body that was small and human, potentially ill, and easily harmed. He came to show us the way to know God... to talk to Him... to make things just like they had been in the Garden, so long ago, when people walked and talked with their Maker. Jesus came to BE THE WAY. And all the people around Him did was fight over who was greatest, misunderstand what He was trying to tell them, value money more than people and push children away because they thought Jesus was WAAAY TO IMPORTANT to take time out for them. During all of that Jesus lived His life with love, kindness, and with a tenderness and humility that drew people - and children - to himself.
Jesus did it... Overcame sin and selfishness for me. He died so that I would be free from the restraints sin puts on me. The way I live will either reflect that or cast shame on me because I am not aware of the price paid for the freedom I have.
Ephesians 3:16-19
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
I can love these children who mess things up sometimes. I can be patient with them and let them know they are much more important than things or dinner or carpet or wasted plaster of paris.
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