Just Another Normal Day?

How often do I just blaze on through from one thing to the next, rarely stopping to look around and just ENJOY the moment?   So caught up in dealing with the day to day I fail to just appreciate the day itself. *sigh*  I don't think this is what God had in mind for me or any of us, for that matter!  I found these verses and would like to share them:

• Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?  Matthew 6:27
• Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.  Matthew 6:34

It's time to take back the moments, sit back and relish them...

Today, I'm home tending to a sick Patrick-man.  For a mom of five, taking a sick day to take care of a beastie isn't too far beyond the norm.  But Patrick is his own unique brand of sick.  He sleeps on the couch with a blanket pulled over his head.  He is restless, wakeful now that the fever has broken; each time he wakes, the blanket comes down, he grins sleepily and flashes "I Love You" in sign, blanket back up and back to sleep.  We've shared an invaluable moment of connection, he and I.  This is a moment to cherish, I realize.  Setting aside the thoughts of piles of work waiting on my desk, the dirty dishes in the sink, the laundry piled up, the cleaning undone....I just wait for his next appearance.  Weird, maybe, but I think I will accept the challenge to stop and recognize these odd little moments.

What's a 'normal day' anyway? Around here that's an EXCELLENT question!  At the very least, we do try to make it normal to tag up at the end of our busy days, spending a few precious minutes together before we all head off to bed.  But it looks like we will be accepting a "new normal" soon enough...

This is a big year of change for our family--lots of moving on and moving up!  When the new school year begins this summer, Katie will head off to college, Patrick will enter high school and Ben will tackle middle school.  (and if you are saying YIKES! in your head, imagine how I'm feeling...)  We are all looking forward to the excitement and uncertainty of the future. But I need to remember NOT to look too far ahead, to STAY in the moment.  Quite frankly, I'm not entirely sure how I got to the point where I am the Mom of a soon-to-be high school graduate! (but that's a topic for a different blog post!)

There will be visits to Katie at college, new sports to follow, new activities to attend, new challenges to attack. New routines to establish.  And yet, somewhere in between, there will be today's normal, too--lacrosse practice, basketball games, choir concerts, homework and school projects--giving us a continuity that won't let us grieve the changes for too long.  Cords that weave the past into the future and strengthen our family. When we made the change from "growing family" to "growing-up family" all that time ago, I had no idea that THESE were the kinds of things we would be thinking about so soon.


Now y'all know that I'm a deep thinker, but you're probably wondering what spurred this unlikely bit of introspection?  My wise and wonderful friend Alice posted a quote on her FaceBook page recently that encouraged me to get my mojo working to turn it into a little printable so I could frame it as a reminder:

This quote will be on my desk tomorrow, so I don't forget my resolve.  If this quote would be a good reminder for you, too...click here to download the file.  You can pick a color scheme you like better if you want!  (Check these out!  Median, Flow, Module, Concourse, Clay)  (What do you think of my first attempt at turning a quote into something fun?)