just another ordinary day

Our calendar has been cleared.  Not "cleared up" but "been cleared."  After a busy summer and start of fall my wise knight encouraged me to be home.  Not just in our house for a few hours and out again to a playdate or to the store, but to be home.  So easily I commit to things and forget that for this precious, too-short season of life, my calling and my heart is to our home...to those three little ones that have been entrusted to us.

And with that in mind, yesterday, like the many Tuesdays before it began in an ordinary fashion, reheating cold coffee. My knight had left early and there wasn't fresh coffee so I sighed and poured a cup from Monday's batch knowing it would just be reheated in the microwave a dozen times anyway.

A dear friend-sister who lives behind us stopped in for early morning Gospel-speak as we can so easily encourage one another, confess struggles, lift up our thoughts of marriage to where they should be.  Our girls graciously gave us time and slept in, and I when I finally woke them in my sing-song voice with our traditional "Arise and Shine the Light has come. Who is the light?"

two sister-voices chimed "Jesus!"

After breakfast we took out our Gratitude Journal and began to give thanks.  I couldn't get Addy to stop.  I laughed inside knowing I shouldn't be frustrated because my 3 year-old wouldn't stop giving thanks...how much there is to be learned from our children.

Generous Grammy came by so I could slip away to exercise my freedom to vote without 3 little ones in toe. Moments after arriving home, our third visitor of the day appeared at our door.  Our adopted Nana popped in for visit (and to pick up some yet-to-be delivered elderberries) and we got to keep her for an hour or so.  Little girls came in and out and in and out from the sunny backyard as I with my two dear mother-friends once again got to be encouraged, exhorted, challenged.

The door opened again to our fourth visitor, a sweet friend and the deliverer of the to-be-picked up elderberries.  More speaking, trying to pass on encouragement for her daughter, a new mama struggling to feed her baby. Amazed that something so natural, so ordained by God, could be so difficult.

How much of our lives require patience and trust as things God has ordained turn out to be so difficult in the starting?

More Gospel-speak. 

Friends exit and Grammy and I share sandwiches on homemade bread with ripe tomatoes I scavenged from my garden and then she stays so that I can slip out during naps to grab the last few items for this week's menu.  Without my children I wander without focus. How can it be that those three small children actually help me navigate a store more quickly?

Home again, I put away my groceries and realize that nothing, nothing I "planned" to do had been done.  In fact the laundry pile was larger and the toys more scattered.

My knight calls to say he is on his way home early to cast his vote as well.  Quickly I round up the girls so we can join him on the walk to our precinct.

In 65 degree air, with vivid blue sky we walk the length of our tree-lined street and leaves fall all around us.  I can't describe the colors of our road but you know them--the fall colors that stop your breath short when you really see them?  Yes, those colors.

We go and he votes and the girls get stickers and animal cookies and I am convinced that they will be faithful voters for their lifetimes.

Neighbors one after another stop us as we make our way back down the street. Sharing stories, smiles, our lives.

Dinner is quick and baths are taken and once children are finally sleeping my knight and I sit down together. He with laptop in hand and I with scissors in hand spend the final too-short hours of our days left together.  He working faithfully, I cutting out paper leaf after leaf until my fingers are numb and blue.

We fall into bed way too late, the elections keeping us up, and I snuggle beside him and whisper "You're my favorite."

And he replies,"Well, that is much better than being your not-favorite."

And he laughs and I laugh and that is the last thing I remember before drifting off to sleep.

Tuesday did not go as planned, "nothing" was done and our home was a hustle and bustle of family and friends and fellowship.  There was no defining event to our day or a revolutionary moment of awakening, but the entire day was marked by grace. Each sweet, ordinary yet unplanned moment was exactly how He had intended, and there was evidence of grace all over, making our very ordinary Tuesday, rather extraordinary after all.

All is grace. Isn't it! 

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of change. ~James 1:17