There's no baptism back into real life that's quite like a Monday. Seriously. We returned yesterday from our weekend camping/boating trip outing and basically crashed. That meant that the ruptured vessel of clothes, shoes, toys and other domestic innards that is our house would be sitting on my plate when I got home.
I nearly broke my neck dragging two full laundry baskets down the stairs with Sasha trying to wiggle down with me. I lost at least four socks on the trip there and wound up dumping half of one basket in the process of retrieving said socks. I finally hauled it all into the laundry room for sorting, and repeated the whole thing until I had about four full baskets lined up for washing.
In some cases, this is room to grumble. Tonight could've been one of those nights, but as I was sorting and filling the washer with the first load, it hit me. It was so subtle that I almost missed it, but a tiny thought dawned on me:
You're a blessed girl, Cori.
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| #realtalk |
That itty bitty little inkling of a thought spidered out into a flood of reasons that started scrolling through my head like a reel of movie credits. I'm not the only person who suffers from the blight of
first world problems, but tonight I had a beautiful little moment alone, in my basement, to absorb the truth behind not just this busy little Monday, but my life in general.
This is a lot of laundry.
... Which means that my family & I have clothes on our backs.Cooking dinner is gonna take a little while.
... Which means there is food to cook here, and that my family is actually here to enjoy it.The dishes are dirty, again...
... Which means that others have been here to eat and share that time with me.
There are toys everywhere in the living room.
... I have a healthy daughter who may still want for things she doesn't have,
but she'll never go without the things she needs.
My garage is a greasy, tool-cluttered space.
... Which means I have a man here who knows how to use his hands to fix
what's broken & improve what isn't.
The basement smells like dogs.
... We have two who are more loyal and loving than I could imagine.
The garage [sometimes] smells like dude (:
... Which means the dude who lives here is worth keeping around, is here more often than not,
and in turn values the idea of being present with his family.
My schedule is so busy.
... Which means I'm a functioning part of my own life and fractions of those around me.
My Bible is falling apart.
... Which means it's a working tool in our home.
There are things I didn't accomplish today.
... Which means I have a purpose, and a reason to face every day with a mission.
They were in no particular order, but those are just some of the things that made me pause from my human instinct to find all of those things [&more] as burdens, rather than the misleading appearances of the real blessings in my life.
This little lightbulb moment pacified my urging anxiety when I subdued the laundry and headed upstairs to start working on Mother's Day cards. I was met at the top of the stairs by Sydni and a bag of play-doh that had been given to her by the Easter Bunny.
Folks, spending time with your toddler is always more important than whatever you've got planned. She won't remember the birthday hat, cake and present we made out of play-doh tonight, but she'll remember that her mommy played with her, and even those short couple of hours are something that neither her nor I would ever get back if it hadn't happened.
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| crafty little miss... ♥ |
Plus, let's be honest: playing with play-doh is way more fun than making cards. We can do that tomorrow. (:
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| play-doh party! |
My daughter didn't miss a beat of her decorating a purple and yellow play-doh cake to say,
"Mommy, thank you for playing with me."
Whoa.
Those 6 little words, delivered by no prompting from me, made me melt. We stopped everything and wrapped each other up in a bearhug for a few minutes. I have no idea if she'll remember saying that to me, but I will never forget it.
My little blended family and I ate, played and laughed together tonight. We're a frazzled bunch sometimes, but frankly, I wouldn't change a thing.
This is what life's all about, people.
Play-doh playbreaks and loving your laundry (:
What a life, I tell ya... what an unpredictable, impromptu, chaotically-fun, sometimes-smelly, laundry-filled, completely blessed life ♥.
xo | cmd
