Enjoying the moment(s)

This time of year, not only are we busy preparing for Christmas, but we are also busy with birthdays.

One of the birthday traditions in our home involves making a birthday sign/banner. While our soon-to-be-birthday-girl was out of the house today (with grandma, visiting great-grandpa), we took hold of our opportunity.

Here's a little of what went on as we tried to tackle this:

Color crayons were everywhere... Audra and Adelia crawled all over and ripped the paper while I scrambled to tape the places they'd ripped and tried to keep one step ahead of them so that they wouldn't color anywhere else...

...Isaac meticulously drew his picture and carefully wrote the letters of Ella's name, in big, block letters- and was happily oblivious to the chaos around him as he did so... I was making suggestions for what Isaias could draw, but then he wanted me to draw everything for him because he's at that age where he cares that it actually looks like what he's intending to draw, so we settled on 8's and balloons... I kept trying to keep the paper smooth for drawing, which was practically a fruitless effort on my part, because Adelia kept shoving crayons beneath the paper and Audra kept sitting on top of the paper, and kicking her legs in all the excitement, thus scrunching the paper up...

...I traced the girls' hands, and Isaias', too...and I picked up crayons and kept taping and told Adelia and Isaias to please not wrestle right now and took the tape away from Adelia and thought about how I used to struggle with these birthday banners being sloppy and the lettering maybe not being perfect and the rips and the coloring right on top of the words someone has written, but my~ how I've grown in that area!... and I thought about how anxious I might have been if I had things TO DO today; how rushed and frazzled and irritable I might have been. But I wasn't, because this was all we had to do, and so I laughed and moved Audra one more time and pulled another crayon from beneath the banner and taped the rips and simply enjoyed the moment. And I thought about how good this was for all of us, just to be together with nothing to do and nowhere to go and no plans but this.

9 comments:

  1. Love it!
    No agenda just makes life easier doesn't it. Good for you. I used to get easily bent outta shape in these moments and I have less kids.

    Mine are in the living room building forts with empty boxes that need to be filled but hey....they are happy.

    PS I will email soon. Our computers both crashed last week and this one is as slow as a slug.

    off to finish dinner :o)

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  2. Adorable, Stacy! It sounds like such fun :) Love, Q

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  3. What fun! Thanks for being such a fun, patient, loving mama to our kids. I wish I could have been here with y'all.

    Loving you.

    - Mark

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  4. Oh I so now how this can be. And how sometimes we can get snarky when we have so much else to do. But how it can be so fun when we can just focus on our kids. Good job you. And I am glad you had this moment to just enjoy.

    And take pictures, that is impressive!

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  5. love it! and love that your husband posts sweet comments on your blog!!!!!

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  6. My sis-in-law gave me a link to your blog, and it is SO what I need. What a blessing it has been to me. I started homeschooling this year for the first time I have an 8,4,15mos old. And I struggle with patience, organization, and turning to God to give me all I need to run my day! You blog is so helpful to me THANK YOU for taking time out of your BUSY schedule to encourage others!

    -Angela Barnhart

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  7. So glad you enjoyed your moments! :-)

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  8. Wonderful, funny post, Stacy--you capture life with small ones well! How I hope for grace to be like you in patience and humility in this holiday season, when I have so many things I want to do with the kids...

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  9. Sandi~
    Yes... no agenda DOES make life easier! I'd forgotten that! We were in such a good groove with school but I think we've all needed this break! :)

    Building forts with empty boxes sounds WAY fun, Sandi! Blessings to you guys as you pack and move!


    Quinne~
    Thank you. It was fun!

    Mark~
    Thank you for your encouragement, honey. I could never do my job without your support. And of course it WOULD have been way more fun with daddy!

    Amy~
    Ugh. Yep. And "snarky" is a good word. :)

    Missy~
    I love it when he posts sweet comments, too! :)

    mommybarnhart~
    Welcome! Thank you for leaving a comment with such kind words, Angela! And: YOU CAN DO IT! (parenting, homeschooling, organizing... and all that those things entail!)

    Kristin~
    Me too! :)

    Cara~
    Aw, thanks, friend.
    Blessings to you as you accomplish much this season and enjoy your little ones along the way! :)

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