And then reality hit: the kids started arguing, bickering and threatening to stab each other with sticks, I realized that you can't see the floor in one of the rooms in my home, and I'm right now, at this moment, trying to recover from a nearly hour-long festival of bad attitudes and crying from the eldest of the two (slightly) maniacal monkeys I call my children. She's currently upstairs crying loudly and writing in her "Feelings Journal" before she takes a 30-minute rest. *Sigh*
But since it was a nearly 40-hour span of happy children, happy mommy, I feel that I should, at the very least, send some of that happiness out into the world. And hopefully, this episode in the soap-opera I call my life will fade (QUICKLY, God-willing!!) into the past. Please, merciful Lord, let it end soon. *Double sigh*
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So today has been a good day. Yesterday was too.
Happy children. Beautiful weather. Sunshine, blue skies, cool autumn air. Art lessons, sprinkled with a life lesson on compassion and giving back.
The house is a wreck, and I feel like my body is going to give out on me any second if I keep pushing myself so hard, but that's okay. Because these have been good days. And that's a big deal to me.
Yesterday, there were moments of irritation, and some moments of sadness over the fact that it's likely we won't be spending the holidays with family, but there was peace in our home, the sun shining in the windows, a sleeping babe, and a busy little bee working quietly.
Every other Wednesday we have art lessons (generally painting) with my dear friend, the incomparable Miss Gretchen Ann, a very dear friend of mine who is an AMAZING artist and designer.
So yesterday, being Wednesday, we packed up and headed over to Gretchen's house. Gretchen is the queen of peace, so going to her house is like being immersed in reassurance, quiet and contentment. Which is a balm to my heart, bringing harmony to the the three-ring-circus of chaos that often fills my life.
It's always a delightful experience to go to Gretchen's house, but yesterday was especially good. Gretchen had planned a project for us which included a field trip! And it was an exceptionally worthy one. One which spoke directly to one of the quiet desires of my heart, a desire that she knew nothing about!
Are you ready to hear what it was???
Well... Gretchen had planned for us to do some paintings and maybe some writing and then take those things over to her elderly aunt who was just diagnosed with cancer.
Wow.
The reason why this is so special to me is because I have been working on ideas for how to incorporate giving back to others, particularly the elderly and ill, for the last several months. It has been heavy on my heart that my children not only learn how to be good stewards of compassion and kindness in our home, but also out in the world. This is something that I feel children should learn early, but I have felt at a loss as to HOW exactly to get started. So when Gretchen made this suggestion, I was floored. It was perfect!
So we learned about painting still life (at which I SUCK, I might add. :O), and painted roses and bouquets. The girls did great, and although mine was more made up from my idea of what it SHOULD look like rather than what it really did, all the paintings turned out nicely. The Ladybug was sure to sign her name, and KayKay wrote a sweet little poem for Gretchen's Aunt Mimi about blessings and healing.
Then we all piled in the car, with a pit stop for some amazing local burgers in between, and drove just a mile or two to Gretchen's Aunt Mimi's house. Aunt Mimi was simply darling and I completely want an Aunt Mimi of my own! She welcomed us in like we were old family, and was absolutely thrilled with the paintings and poem. We only stayed a few minutes because she is in the midst of chemotherapy and radiation and tires easily, but they were lovely minutes. Both the girls were extra sweet and took much pleasure in presenting their artwork to Aunt Mimi. We prayed blessings over her before we left, and it was great.
Today, we have experimented with "cave painting." We are studying the beginnings of civilization using The Story of the World, and one of the projects in it was to simulate cave paintings, like those in Lascaux, France. It was a neat idea, so we tried it.
We took large pieces of crumpled brown paper bags and those were our "cave walls." I took the idea a little further (the original idea just suggests using brown, red, and black paint), and we created our own paint using charcoal, dirt, and water, mixed up with a little paint to keep it thick enough. We then used sticks and our fingers to paint. It was messy, dirty and totally fun. I'll try to get some pictures up with this post later today when I have the camera.
We talked about what it would be like to live in caves, and how it would be to make paint only using the things we could find. The Ladybug was curious how cave people would live light, so I explained that likely they only had a bit of firelight, if they were lucky. She was appropriately flabbergasted.
And then the meltdown started, so we packed it up and I stopped hallucinating about my perfectly gorgeous life and how perfectly perfect it was. Or rather, I was drug, kicking and screaming the whole way from my hallucination by children who were themselves literally kicking and screaming. *Triple sigh*
It is a season. And it REALLY IS GETTING BETTER. I promise!
At least I was able to deal with the meltdown sympathetically and without anger. Yay for progress!
Anyway, I was going to spend some time ruminating about my recent business venture and how great it is and blah, blah, blah, but oh, forget it. I'd rather be able to see the floor today, I think. And while I have a few minutes of quiet (AT LAST the quiet has come! Hallelujah!), I might as well get going on that. If you want to know about my business, check out my other blog, here. Or call me, because if you're reading this, most likely you already know me and because you love me so much, probably have my number on speed dial. Oh wait... There I go hallucinating again! Sorry!
And I'm done.
Nice to hear about visiting "Aunt Mimi". We have been looking for ways to get our kids involved in service as well - it's good for them to quickly learn that life is not all about them :) Also, it's what Jesus would do - and that's who we want to teach them to be like.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that... I agree, it is so important to teach kids that there is this big, wide world out there OUTSIDE of themselves and their wants and needs. And that is so important.
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