It is my role as a wife and mother to create a peaceful orderly home for my family. I feel as though I have been failing miserably! My search for inspiration and guidance led me to read the book It’s All too Much and embark on a total decluttering of our home. (We ARE making progress… In fact, this weekend we worked on the garage! A task that has been put off FOREVER!) In addition to It’s All too Much I picked up another great book from the library that I just started reading as well titled:
It is SUCH a WONDERFUL book, which I highly recommend to all mothers! I was so excited to see that Dawn just started an online book study on this book! I decided to join in. I am really looking forward to reading everyones thoughts on this book. It is so good, I want to order my own copy so that I can refer back to it often!
The first chapter is titled “Dailiness.” After reading this chapter, it made me think about how, so often, rather than embracing the “dailiness” like I should, I feel like I need to escape from it all, and just “get a break!” Don’t get me wrong, I do need those breaks…but maybe that really isn’t all I need. Maybe I really do need to slow down, and try to appreciate all the small moments of each day.. Treasuring all the precious moments I have with my family, and remind myself that I won’t have all these little ones forever, and that I need to enjoy every moment of it while I can.
There were a couple paragraphs from this chapter that really made me stop and think.
The moments I hold most dear are those that arise unbidden in the course of any day-small, evanescent, scarcely worth noticing except for the fact that I am being offered, just for a second, a glimpse into another’s soul. If my experience as a mother has taught me anything, it is to be awake for such moments, to keep life simple enough to allow them to occur, and to appreciate their fleeting beauty: a lip smacking good-night “guppy kiss”; a spoonful of maple syrup on snow, served to me in bed with great fanfare on a stormy winter morning; a conversation with a tiny speckled salamander discovered, blinking calmly, under a rock… These are the moments that, woven together, constitute the unique fabric of our family life. Herein lies the deep color, the lights and shadows of our days together. (p 7)
My life is filled with these “moments.” In fact, peace and happiness is all around me, I just need to start looking for it and be more accepting of it. The unexpected kisses and hugs from my kids, the smiles, giggles and snuggles from the baby, even the wild flowers on the way down to the mailbox… So much of the time I am in too much of a hurry to be “awake for such moments.” Or I catch myself saying “in just a minute,” when the kids want to share something with me. Why am I always so distracted, or in such a hurry!?!?
Like all mothers, I harbor dreams for my children, and sometimes I fall under the spell of my own aspirations for them. We want our children to do well! But when I stop and think about what I truly want for them, I know that it is not material wealth or academic brilliance or athletic prowess. My deeper hope is that each of my sons will be able to see the sacred in the ordinary; that they, too, will grow up knowing how to “love the dailiness.” So, for their sakes as well as my own, I remind myself to slow down and enjoy the day’s doings. The daily rhythms of life, the humble household rituals, the nourishment I provide – these are my offerings to my children, given with love and gratefully received. (p.13)
This coming week I am really going to make an effort to slow down a little bit, and try my best to “love the dailiness” and enjoy the “daily rhythms of life” and our own “humble household rituals.”
Here are a few things that I want to ponder and work on this week:
- What daily activities do I really enjoy doing?
- What daily activities do I dislike, and how can I grow to like them?
- Is there anything that I’ve been wanting to add to our daily routine?
- “Enjoy the day’s doings!”
I pray that I can embrace the dailiness, and love the peace and comfort that it gives us. I need God to help me to say no to all those extra activities that do not have a good impact on my home and the legacy I have chosen to spend my life building…my children!
Neither intelligence nor talents. He cherishes simplicity.”
and embrace my daily life with love and joy!
Absolutely lovely. I will need to get my hands on this book. I wonder if the library has more than one copy!
Thank you for sharing, sounds like a book I really need to read!
They DO! In fact there are 2 copies in right now… so go check one of them out and join in the book study! 🙂
I do love that book!
We’re reading the same books! I loved MFG. I plan to participate in Dawn’s book club too, I just haven’t posted a comment yet.
Hi Cheryl!
They are great books aren’t they? Thanks so much for visiting!