Mobilize Mondays

Coming off the weekend, Monday is just a long and crazy day.  And it's a day to gear back up for the week.  The week before on Friday, I'm putting stuff off to do for Saturday.  Then Saturday comes and I don't want to do anything!  But I force myself to get the things done that are on my list so that I don't have to do them on Sunday.  Because I'm NOT going to do them on Sunday.  I am trying to keep Sunday basically work-free - keeping it the Sabbath.  Only doing things that are live-giving.  I do basic stuff like making meals, etc.  But no chores or other work that isn't fun for me.  Organizing is fun for me, and life-giving, so sometimes I do that...  But other than that I'm working hard on Sunday to not do work!

So on Monday, I end up trying to figure out where I am on the stuff that needs to be done - and the stuff that I want to do.  And really it's about what I want to do.  Basic needs are always taken care of - it's the daily, weekly and monthly projects that need to be done.   Things that I like to keep up with so that they don't catch up with me!  But sometimes those things that I need to do, steal time from the things that I want to do.  So Mobilize Monday is the day that I like to figure out how I can fit it all in - ALL of it.  Wanting to do the things I need to do and needing to do the things that I want to do!

Mondays are when I regroup for the week.  Where are we going?  What needs to be done? What do I want to get done?  Who needs to be where, when?  Review my calendar(s).  Make my lists.  Make plans.  And then the most important part:  be prepared for all of that to be thrown into chaos.  Because who am I kidding.  I can plan stuff, but life happens in the unexpected and the unknown - the adventure and the challenge.

So I'm mobilized for the week - for whatever may come!!

Three kids and a milkshake

This evening, after a fun trip to the zoo, I was sitting on the couch finishing up a milkshake and all three kids came over to me.  And Daniel said, "Nothing like sitting on the couch with three kids trying to steal your milkshake."  And I said kiddingly, "Nope, there really is nothing like this.  This is the dream!"  But this really IS the dream.  To be enjoying a nice day, a trip to the zoo, a dinner with my family, and surrounded by my kids - that is my dream.  But I never thought that my dream would be so fulfilled.  That I would have THREE kids surrounding me on a Sunday afternoon.  Oh, how God has blessed our family.  Oh how I am so glad that my "plans" were nothing near how God has shaped my life.  My dream pales in comparison to the miracle that I see each morning - that I tuck in each evening.

It's amazing - sometimes I just can't believe that I'm a mom.  It's weird.  You'd think that I was reminded of it every minute of the day - hearing noises, wiping noses, "mommy mommy" all day long.  But sometimes, in a rare moment of quiet, I have to realize again that I am a mom.  I know that I am a "mommy" - tending to the needs of my little ones.  But being a "mother" just seems crazy still.  That I am going to be a mother forever.  That I am going to travel through life with these wonderful children that God has brought into my life. Being in the little years, I sometimes get trapped in thinking this is how it's going to be forever.  That there will always be toys on the floor and diapers and tears and fits.  Ok, so maybe I won't see the end of all of that...  Ok, well maybe just the end to the diapers.  But still.  It will be different.  Soon they will all be in school.  And then they will all be teenagers...  yikes.  Maybe because it happened so fast, that I guess I'm still just catching up sometimes.  It still is amazing to me that I am a mom of three.

So today, I was glad to have my little ones - all grabbing for the straw.  Reminding me how blessed I am.  Reminding me to remember to take the time to sit on the floor with them and brush a doll's hair, or play ball in their room, or look intently at each drawing (even if I don't really see Rapunzel sitting on a cactus).