Sowing Seeds

This busy and slow season of hanging with my little guys is gifting me with time to think. Well, kind of :) I guess it's a season of paradox. That's the best way to describe it. I know it won't last forever, so sitting on the swing with my little Grady, while watching the other ones play ships and kracken on the slide and trampoline, and letting the dryer turn cool is something I'm working on accepting. Naptimes are special times for Bannon and I as we curl up reading his books alone together. It means time to myself is less. Jeremy and the big guys return late every day leaving long stretches of time I am the sole source of care, oversight, and counselor (you must know what I'm talking about if you have more than one who need you to help them learn to work things out.)

I have a couple of books I'm enjoying, and I wanted to leave a couple of thoughts here as they have been a help to me, and maybe encourage someone else.

"Our photo albums from those days are full of pictures of birthday cakes and holiday celebrations, vacation trips and family adventures, piano recitals and baseball games. But the memories I find myself sifting through the past to find, the ones I would give anything to relive, are the ones that no one ever thought to photograph, the ones that came and went as softly as a breeze on a summer afternoon.
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It has taken a while, but I know it now-the most wonderful gift we had, the gift I've finally learned to cherish above all else, was the gift of all those perfectly ordinary days."
pg 124, The Gift of an Ordinary Day, Katrina Kenison

Elizabeth George encourages in her book, A Woman After God's Own Heart, we have so many things as tasks we must do anyway, why not make them special moments?

So I stitch a seam, sow a seed, pray a prayer.

Little touches on plain meals.
Owning the messy corners to make a man smile.
Using the bread machine to make bread.
Praying those prayers of faith that are in my heart for my loved ones.
Letting children explore and sharing in their discoveries with enthusiasm.
Speaking His words as we go about our days.
15 minute power naps do wonders!
Lighting candles, playing old time music for a very happy atmosphere.
Biting my tongue.
Saying sorry when I didn't.
Letting them pile and smush around me.
Taking pictures of the "ordinary days." :)