Good Things

Feb 22

Good Things

Every Saturday night my Big Strong Man and I try -desperately!- to remember to invite Zeplin (3 yrs) into our bed for a sleepover. Because we have been getting better at remembering, it has become a ritual and Zep has begun to count down the nights until he gets to jump into our bed with us and fall asleep watching Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.  We all enjoy this.

Zeplin will perch himself right between us; breath in my face, leg on his Daddy.
I LOVE this.
I can just breath him in and marvel at how handsome he is and yet how innocent and charming...and sleepy. His sweaty hair and red face. Be still my heart. *sigh*

Earlier today, before we all gathered around the headrest of our huge bed; before I snuck downstairs for cottage cheese and apple slices; before I pulled up a stool to the laptop which was resting on my counter, I found myself thinking about good things.
Today started with a plan: homemade ketchup, elderberry syrup, bread, lemonade.
There was a LOT to get done today.
A lot I had hoped to accomplish.
So there I was, running around my kitchen putting dirty dishes in the sink and returning breakfast items to the fridge. I would stop to wipe a spill and notice the laundry piling-up; Throw a load in the washer; Change Demitri's diaper and realize I was down to the last two cloth diapers- another load, here I go.
Clean the lemons, slice the bread, look-up a cheat-sheet for spices. Run during nap time; shave my legs and shower; fold and fold and fold all that laundry.
Toddler to time-out. We talk. We hug.
Put the inserts out in the sun for sanitation and natural bleaching (take advantage of the great weather); load up the kiddos and go for a walk.
Kiss my Hubby, welcome home.
Dinner to be prepared, served, and cleaned. Get my baby off to bed; not groan too loudly when my big kid puts his tooth-brush down the drain because he "wanted to".
Today was busy.

Here's the catch: it seemed that, in the midst of doing all this good, I was neglecting the great.
Yes, I stopped to play with my kiddos today. I was on top of diaper changes. I read to my children and tucked them in at nap time.
But it's this drive inside of me to just "do".
I am stacking play cups with one of my Littles and thinking about
dinner.
Brushing my teeth and wanting to blog.
Cuddling with my toddler and focusing on that apple.
And the greatness of it all, each moment and each grin, can so easily be overlooked by the crumbs on the floor or the toilet paper catastrophe the length of our bathroom.

Being INTENTIONAL has been my focus for months now. Maybe a year.
Intentional with each moment, each word.
Allowing my family to know, evidenced by my actions, that they rock my world. Intentionally stopping the "go" in me and choosing to stop and be with them.
Each one of them.
Because I don't want to waste time on the good.
Not when there is so much to be had in the great.  
  
           "But dying to self demands that I might gratefully
              and humbly receive the better, the only things
                               that a good God gives."
                -Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts, 179


In this week before Christmas, this post seems to be a good reminder of things that truly matter. Merry Christmas!!
-gomommyblogger