Friday, April 10, 2009

Just Another Ordinary Day

"Life is made up of ordinary days."

I think about this quote sometimes when the days stack up on top of each other and I seem to be getting little accomplished. Whenever I struggle with focusing on the negative, I can almost always do a mental about face by choosing to celebrate the gift of the million tiny moments worth of joy found in just one ordinary day. We all have those precious moments, and, if we pause to appreciate them, our ho-hum day can be transformed into a day of wonder and delight.

The smiles on the kids faces

Josh's hug before work

An answered prayer

An e-mail from an old friend

The wonder and excitement of each little (quickly) passing phase that the kids are in

The changing seasons (something new and exciting)

My new shirt

My jeans getting baggy

Milla's soft skin and sweet baby smell

Learning to make a new coffee treat

Finding out something new and being pleasantly surprised

I could literally write a book about the blessings in everyday things!

I love it, though, when one of our plain and ordinary days becomes just a little less ordinary. It doesn't take much to amuse me (or the kids for that matter.)

Thursday was one of those days...just a little extra something in that day to make me smile...

As the end of the school year draws near, the kids grow increasingly hard to motivate. They just want to run and play outside. On Thursday, we switched our routine up just enough to make things fresh and interesting. The kids didn't do their chores that day and started the day grocery shopping, followed by playing outside. Mary Alice had just finished spending an hour or so riding her bicycle on our driveway. I told her she needed to get busy with her school work.

She ran inside, grabbed some books, and proceeded to do her math in her bicycle helmet. I had to get the camera. Mary Alice did most of her school work on our driveway. So cute! The picture of her doing her schoolwork in her bike helmet is so representative of the freedom that we enjoy in our school days at home. I love it that the kids can play outside together in the middle of the day. There was nothing really special about this particular day, other than that we were spending it together. And that, my friends, is worth celebrating. :)



Milla girl loves being outside. She practiced her bubble blowing.


Shootin' some b-ball outside of the school...



The Maje, dressed as a caped crusader... a basketball playing caped crusader :)





Our Chubbers :) We LOVE her big smile. She laughs alot now, a sound I never tire of hearing. :)


4 comments:

Miranda said...

Sounds like a perfect day!! I think I could live off of baby smiles alone!

Barefeet Photography said...

what a sweet picture of Mary Alice! I just love your kiddos :)

Mary said...

What precious memories! I love how God always seems to remind us how he's working through such "ordinary" days by way of sweet children, laughter (especially coming from sweet kiddos!), hugs, and so much more!

Hannah said...

That reminds me a lot of my schooling days. We would just get tired and take a break and play outside. Some of my best memories involve playing with Ben outside on school days when all of the other suckers were in school sitting at desks. Haha.

I loved seeing Mary Alice at Spring Sing! What a girl! :)