the backburner

I've let so many things that I used to love doing sit on the backburner. Things like reading and knitting and walking. I think that school and house projects have made my mind feel too full to invest in any of that. But I've noticed a change lately. Even thinking of those things is a change. The approach of spring seems to be awakening my desire to get back to some of those hobbies. I keep getting yarn out of "the stash" and just touching it...thinking of projects. I want to select a project that is not too complicated and not too bulky. Something soft and useful and for me. I do have some sock yarn and I do enjoy me some handknit socks...

Reprieve

It's Friday - in all it's beautiful glory. This week has been a treat; everything at school just seemed to work and I didn't have a panic attack about what I would be doing with any of my classes even once. An idea for a child care unit game that I've been toying with for a year and a half finally came together in my head and it was easy to put together and the students loved it. In fact, they've asked every day since if we could play it again. I know that I've mentioned this before, but I have to say it again - I am just so grateful for the Lord taking me by the hand and helping me do what I need to do. Lately I've been praying that I can be a blessing in the lives of others. I think that we do receive what we ask for because I feel like my mind has been opened and my patience has been increased.
Friday evening just feels like such a reprieve. After a long week of getting up early, running errands, hoping I don't forget to take my kids where they need to go (and then return when I'm supposed to - guess who was 10 minutes late picking up from dance and felt like crap even when Sugar said it was OK? yep. I know, there's worse things, but still it's hard not to feel like the moms that have it together don't do stuff like that). Honey's kicked back in the recliner reading and Sugar has her cousin over for a sleepover (they're watching Tinkerbell right now). Mr. Charming is sanding the door on the room we're overhauling and I'm listening to the dryer and enjoying some free time now that dinner is over. It's just regular life, nothing extraordinary but I can't help but feel that this life is sweet.

Viva le difference!

There are many times during marriage that I've thought Mr. Charming and I are definately a case of "opposites attract." We are oh-so-different in lots and lots of ways. I'll admit that there've been plenty of times, especially early in our marriage, when I wished he was more like me. Skip a few years and time has made me wiser. I genuinely appreciate his attention to detail and his methodical determination in seeing a project through to the end. His persnickety-ness has created a more beautiful, secure, efficient home for our family and, while I've certainly contributed, I know that the bulk of credit goes to him. We're beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel on yet-another-home-improvement-project (that's the way it is when you live in an old house, kids) and it's really incredible. I truly admire that he can come home from a long day at work and put on his painting clothes and go to work for the better part of the evening. One more coat of paint on the walls, moulding, re-paint trim, sand & re-paint door, and get carpet laid (come on - that's not bad!) and we can make one more check mark on the perpetual to-do list around here! I also love that he seems like he's no longer aggravated with me for not being like him. Just this past weekend, Mr. Charming thanked me for being a mom that puts her children first and for being the kind of mom that I am. It meant a lot - it was a huge validation of the time that it takes to run kids around and listen and guide and support and fix hair and find shoes and check homework and encourage and all those things that I love doing but at the end of the day, there's not a lot to show for what you've been doing all day. In short, I'm so glad for what makes me, me and for what makes him, him. I wouldn't have it any other way. Viva le difference!

Monday, Monday

Monday always brings out the apprehension in me. I adore sleeping in (to an almost unhealthy degree) and I really try to indulge on the weekends. So when 5:15 Monday morning rolls around, it's not a really happy time. Couple that with the fact that I always plan on organizing my teaching stuff on Saturday and then I end up doing chores at home and goofing around with my kids and so - yeah, the teaching stuff stays perpetually unorganized. So Monday mornings are always the time that I say a little prayer to just help me get it together for today and, every Monday, I get my own little miracle. I don't say any of this in an off-hand way. I really and truly am just so grateful for the Lord somehow making time to help me out of my own mess.
Today was a good teaching day. We started the play of the Diary of Anne Frank in my 7th grade Lit. classes. I love doing that play. I love teaching the history behind it and seeing the kids grasp ideas that they've heard the words of but never really understood. I love the hope and humanity of that story. Home Ec. was a time of re-teaching expectations and I felt like the class was listening to me in a way that doesn't happen as much as I'd like. It was a real reinforcer of why I wanted to teach. I do have to say that I have really great students - even the ones that make me crazy. The fact that I genuinely like them seems to help smooth out the rough edges.
The rest of today was spent on a conference call workshop meeting after school and then a harried time of selling Girl Scout cookies with Sugar. Seeing her with the cute little sash and the bouncy curls in her hair that we did this morning just made me feel like "this is a moment". I think I'll have that image locked away in my memory for a long time. I'm glad that she still lets me help fix her hair sometimes - I've always loved doing that for my girls. I also had an interesting conversation with Honey and she always pleasantly surprises me with the things she thinks about. I feel comforted to hear her thoughts about different boys and also situations that go on at school. In some ways she doesn't talk a lot but what she does say is worth a lot more than a bunch of empty words.
Today is a day of gratitude.

Fast Sunday

Listening to our daughters laugh as they tease each other has to be one of my favorite sounds. Right now, the girls are all ready for church and joking around while Mr. Charming is finishing getting ready. Fast Sunday is always a tough one for me. I feel like I haven't found my testimony of it yet and I know it's because I haven't really invested myself fully in it. This is a time for me with many weighty concerns and this - fasting & prayer - feels like the right way to come to the Lord with them. It's my nature to feel and, honestly, really believe that everything will be all right. That it will be the way it's supposed to be. But on the large scale (problems in the world; problems with the economy) and on the small scale (our teen, Honey, heading off to high school next year), I feel as though I need to do something to address my concerns. So this fast Sunday is about that.