Joyful living

Lately I have been finding myself increasingly frustrated with being a stay-at-home mom, both to Grace and the ever-growing-more-independent Lily also. Parenting is not always fun. Sorry to those of you that were still living in that bubble that I just burst:) While it should come as no surprise to me, a strong-willed independent hard-headed female, that out of me would come a miniature Katie, parenting "myself" is turning out to be a challenge. (God bless you Mom!)

Which brings me to my point about joy. We are COMMANDED, yes commanded, to find joy in all circumstances, life-stages, and roles by the father of joy, God himself. And I know that I know that I know that God never asks me to do the impossible, so that means that it is MY problem when joy escapes me. In that light, I have been trying to choose joy in all things, even when little people are saying things about urine in strange places, or insisting that they are hungry even though we just ate a meal (no joke) 10 minutes ago, or unloading (again) a drawer they know they are not supposed to be in, or body-checking their sister, or incessantly chanting "mama! mama!" over and over again like some baby-doll voicebox gone horribly wrong. Because the bottom line is, God has blessed me with a wonderful husband and two adorable and pretty amazing children and if I just stop and look for it, there is joy in abundance.

Funny how when you ask God to show you something, He will! I am finding more and more joy in the little things through my children's eyes. Take for example, the newest passions of my favorite small urchins. Grace has simply fallen in love with vaccuuming. This, while somewhat frightening to me because you never know what's lurking on the floor that shouldn't be sucked up (and in that vein, let's face it, her sister isn't all that big . . .), has the potential for chore greatness. And it is REALLY funny to watch her wrestle the machine, all the while giggling and exclaiming proudly that she's "really doing it Momma!".


Then there's the blanket draping. One of Lily's favorite new things is to have someone drape her blankie over her, a la Jesus's mother Mary style, and parade around peeking out from behind it. This usually ends in massive giggling also once Grace joins in. (by the way, the blanket on Grace is one of the ones Aunt Christy made for them for Christmas)


We also drape bigger blankets to make "forts" around here frequently, which strangely I have no picture of.


And in perhaps the best example to me of how the little things can truly be joy-provoking, I give you Lily Mae.

Right now, she is unabashedly, unashamedly, unequivocally passionately in love with a small, furry, red creature. Yes, that's right, Elmo strikes again. When she hears his theme-song music start to play, her entire face lights up and she will literally drop whatever she's doing and RUN to the t.v. screaming "Elmo, Elmo, Elmo!" She sits TOTALLY engrossed listening to him and talks to him as though he is in the room with her, interspersing that with gasps of glee and pointing and saying "Oh, Mama look! Elmo!" It is adorable. Here she is watching him while enjoying her close-second new obsession - apples.