I am an ant

Can I self-analyze for 5 quick minutes? Because 5 minutes is about all I've got.

I am an ant. Not a grasshopper, not a snail, definitely not a spider, not a worm. Given the nature of the life circumstances in which I find myself, I have quite a bit to "do" each day. Every day. And while my list varies some with seasons and life, most of what I do each day is very similar to what I did yesterday and what I will do tomorrow.

Right now I'm in one of those seasons where I have my "every day" stuff, plus. (The word "plus" holds a lot, doesn't it?) I am doing much better at keeping up with my list in this season, as opposed to the previous season (summer) when I didn't have as much to do and I tried to be a snail. I tried to slow down and relax and make everything else slow down and relax. That didn't work.

I think I can revel in my "ant"-ness and still relax. Relax, as in, "live life resting in the peace of God and not stressing about my list". I do better when I stay on everyday tasks and short-term plan tasks and long-term planning tasks and pour myself out each day. He gives me the strength I need to "be the ant".

Breaking News: Life filled with laughter and blessings after 13 years of marraige

After soccer/football practices tonight, the kids were eating their snack while Eric had left to run an errand. I saw that he had left me a card for our anniversary, and opened it. It was perfect, and of course I started tearing up a little. After Levi noticed (he always is the one who notices) and got everyone to give me a group hug, I was just overwhelmed with the blessing of this life I have.

So I started to tell the kids how blessed they were to have a dad like Eric. I told them how smart their dad was, and how hard he works to take care of his family. And I told them that the best thing was how their dad loves God, and teaches them what he had learned from God. I paused so they could take it all in. Their faces were glowing with smiles as they finished their watermelon.

Then Leah, with bright eyes and an earnest face, paused with her fork mid-air and asked: "So, what's the bad news?"

Quote of the week...month...

"I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of God to make me love a foreigner or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please."

Wilbur Rees

Our very lovely afternoon. Just lovely.

Ever since her sister Sara and I took a quick jaunt through our local town's newest Antique Mall, Delaney has been asking to go, too. I asked her to wait until after her birthday, and told her she could plan to take some of her birthday money, if she wanted. She did. Today turned out to be a perfect day for the girls and I to go, and everything about our trip, our find(s), and then our resulting evening was just perfectly perfect. Can you guess what we found?

Best quote of the day: "Ladies don't ever yell, right Mom?" -- Delaney, as she stood at the bottom of the stairs with instructions on where to find the place mats and tablecloths to get ready for the tea party. Her sisters were upstairs playing and she knew they would want to be included on every step of the preparations. Instead of our -- ahem -- normal way of getting someones attention, she walked up and told them it was time to start getting everything ready. Like a lady.

More motherhood musings...

By the time we had two children and were pregnant with the twins, we started to get more advice and offers of help. "Do whatever you have to do to get sleep yourself," one would say.

"Really, let us know when we can watch them for a few hours so you can get a break," some other brave soul would offer.

By the time our fifth came along and all were under age 5, we were blessed with help, gifts, and words of wisdom from many friends and family. And of course, we greatly appreciated all of this, as it was a very physically demanding time in our lives. Days were filled with diaper change after diaper change, nursing, holding, chasing, bathing, etc., and we had sore backs and scattered-brains to prove it.

So here we are, ages 5-9, and I'm thinking lately that we need to start a new trend in society: "child-showers", instead of baby showers. And I'm really not talking material items here (although they do go through shoes like diapers around here!). While we needed help physically in the baby years, it's the mental/emotional/intellectual torrent that leaves me ragged these days. They talk, they question, they lecture one another, they talk, they question again, they need interaction!

I can picture it now, instead of people offering burping advice or to rock the baby, they would say things to parents like me like, "You know, handling that emotional withdrawing in your daughter like this...", or "Would it be OK if I spent some time crafting with your 6-year-old?"

A girl can dream, right? ; )

My favorite July photo (so far)

In which you see I am a slavedriver

Me (dumping a new pile onto the bed): "Come and fold, Delaney."

Delaney (coming in to fold): "I knew you were going to say that."

Me: "Wow. How do you know such things?"

Delaney: "Because, whenever you see a pile of laundry and then you see me, you say, 'Come and fold'."