Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Sigh...My Hero

Saturday morning found me kneeling in an inglorious position in front of my toilet. Some sort of stomach bug hit us in full force this weekend, attacking half of the family in 24 hours. This nasty creature showed no mercy and hit where it hurt right out of the gates - mom got sick first. This does not a happy Saturday make! My poor husband, who was feeling half-way to death himself with a brutal sinus infection and was planning on a weekend of rest and recovery, found himself rallying the troops and manning the house, the laundry, the soccer game, the sick me, and all while he would have much preferred to be the one with his hurting head under the covers. He, as is so often the case, was my hero this weekend. He was my knight in shining armor. By noon, my hero had battled my dragon with a script for an anti-nausea drug, crushed ice and water, and a quiet room, soft bed, and sweet solitude. Did I mention that he is my hero? By the end of the day he had been puked on, twice, by our two year old. He had been to the pharmacy, twice, for medicine and milk. He had done loads of laundry, prepared three meals, and the house was clean when I made my way down for the first time at 5:00 pm. He was sick. He was really sick. But, because he wasn't throwing up like some of us, he soldiered on. Did I mention that he is my hero?

This man of mine - he's a keeper.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Take Your Time

Are you like me in that you find yourself repeating the "hurry up!" mantra a gazillion times each day? After attempting to wake the kids for school, "hurry up - you need to get ready for school." When said kids are dressing/brushing teeth/fixing hair/eating breakfast, "hurry up - we need to get in the car." When gathering backpacks and snow stuff and trumpets and lunch boxes, "hurry up - we're going to be late." When gathering all of the same items and heading into the school building, "hurry up - there are people behind me."

The two little words follow me throughout my day. We hurry in and out of the grocery store, Target, the library, the post office, the dry cleaner. We hurry so we can get lunch and a nap squeezed in before it is time to head back to pick up kids at school. We hurry up so we can get chores and schoolwork done before dinner. We hurry up so we can clean up and play a bit before bed. The bedtime routine brings out the molasses again and those two icky words show up again. "Hurry up and brush your teeth, get your pajamas on, set your clothes out - you need to do your quiet time before you go to sleep." How can it take twenty minutes to brush fewer than twenty teeth in a mouth the size of a plum? Finally nestled in bed, the kids are quiet and at peace. I hurry myself through cleaning up the house so we can sit for a bit of peace of our own before my husband and I need to head to bed ourselves. Oh, how I hate "hurry up!"

What if, instead we replaced those two unpleasant words with three more delightful ones, "take your time." One of the things I love about Saturdays and vacations is that great "take your time" feeling that meanders along with us as we lolligag our way through the day. Praise God for Saturdays and vacations! Words like stroll and amble and wander, daydream and discover and wonder are sweet accompaniments to a day full of "take your time."

My challenge is to be intentional about getting more "take your time" into the other days of the week, because life is too short and busy days are too long though somehow the minutes race by me. I pray that I would remember that God gives us richly all things to enjoy - that He delights when I take delight in Him and there is no time to do this if His voice is drowned out by my own, impatiently repeating, "hurry up" (I wonder how often I say this to HIM when I am waiting on an answer or direction? Yikes!)

I pray you have more "take your time" days than "hurry up" days in your week and that you can make time to sit and sip tea with a favorite friend - or novel ;0), cozy up with a lap-full of lilliputians and beautiful books, or snuggle under a blanket with your husband, a bowl of popcorn and a great movie .