snapshot of right now

At this very moment across the room from me Callie just stretched and went back to sleep mid-afternoon nap on the couch. Calendars and notebooks are sprawled next to me from going through my schedule and making sure I have everything written down where everyone in my family can see it (and most importantly, where I can see it so it doesn't slip through the cracks. Today is Thursday which means on a typical day I would be moving couches around and sweeping my floor to turn my front room into a dance studio for a 5 handful of 5-6 year olds and later a handful of 7-8 year olds (and tomorrow a bunch of 3 year olds), but today happens to be mommy and me class, so my house remains a house and dance will be held at the church. Two babies are sleeping in their room, tired from pushing chairs around, climbing in and out of their stroller and hanging on my legs during my dance conditioning exercise class this morning. Ellie is sleeping in her room, worn out from 2.5 hours of non-stop fun at storybook preschool pretending to be a frog, eating carrot "bugs" and raisin "Beetles", and being immersed in the brilliance of the classic book "Frog and Toad are Friends". 

In less than an hour, I will have two girls to hug and snuggle, schoolwork to appreciate, questions to pick out of the jar and ask during 10 minutes with mom and instructions to give. I will hear about tag at recess, who had the same crackers in their lunch today, and what songs were learned in music. In nearly two hours my little man will walk through the door and I will hug him and ask him whether he caught any passes or scored any touchdowns during the football games at recess that he so enjoys. He will tell me about after-school chorus and whether he got the homework he forgot to take this morning that I dropped off for him at school earlier today. 

And then we will all load up and head to dance. Brynn will go first, then Chloe and Morgan's class. Hopefully Seth will be there (with pizza in the car for dinner) to pick up the littles while I stay and dance with Morgan and Chloe since the babies will demand Mom the minute Morgan leaves them to join his ballet class. After dance, we will munch up pizza and baby carrots for dinner while homework is worked on, book report projects are finished up, spelling words reviewed and piano practiced.

We will swish some babies into their beds, read a stack of books, say a bunch of prayers, give a bunch of hugs and kisses and lock a couple of doors from the outside. And then it will be (mostly) quiet again...in between reminders to stop chit chatting and pretending and go to sleep. I will pick up some ingredients for funeral potatoes that are to be delivered tomorrow afternoon, balance our checkbook and pay bills, Seth will finish his charting and hopefully we will fit in some mindless tv watching and chat a bit before collapsing into bed ourselves, exhausted from the whirlwind of it all, to rest up for the start of a different but very similar whirlwind tomorrow. 

Lately I have been so busy doing all of these things and feeling utterly overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of how much has to happen every.single.day, that it has made me sick {quite literally - I am struggling to recover from a cold/flu virus I got over two weeks ago}. So this afternoon, I sat in the quiet and thought about what I could do to feel rejuvenated so I could take on the rest of the day without feeling exhausted just thinking about it. I decided to write it....record it so that I could remember this moment: the eye of the storm, and as I did, I was filled with joy. It seems so overwhelming when you are just going through the motions to survive the day, but when I started thinking about all the beautiful little things that come from the many many tasks, I just felt overwhelmed with gratitude. I am so grateful to have a body that can lift and lug. I am grateful for a house with space to host dance classes. I am grateful for a wonderful school where my kids can learn and play and excel. I am grateful for kind and caring friends that have crossed my path throughout the day. I am grateful for technology that keeps track of all the things my brain cannot. I am grateful for a husband who goes to work every day to provide for our family so I have a budget to balance and gas in my car and this lovely bag of baby carrots sitting next to me to munch on. I am grateful that I have the energy and means to serve and that people don't hesitate to call when help is needed. I am grateful for kids who love life...who find the joy in every little bit of it. I am grateful for the slobbery kisses and the sweaty hugs and the excited anticipation in their voices as they recount the day. I am grateful for the piles of books all over my house that are evidence of many many many moments snuggled and reading together. Truly this life is so filled with joy! I am so glad to think that the life I have been given is the one that will bring me the most lasting joy...and your life is the one that will bring you the most lasting joy. What a blessing it is to live on this earth! 

Hope the snippet of your life today is overflowing with joy! Happy Thursday!