I have been blessed by conversations with friends old and new this past week. Phone numbers netted from Christmas cards allowed for much overdue catching up with women I dearly love. Those conversations and the events of recent weeks have helped me stop and take a deep breath once again. Life has this habit of speeding up in little increments until suddenly, despite the best intentions you are going way too fast. I am not sure what is more challenging to me – avoiding the speeding up or feeling guilty about moving slowly while my peers seem to be moving so much faster.
We did the big freezer cooking this week. It seemed to be a metaphor for so many other parts of life. I have lots of meals stored up. They don’t taste very good. You see I was trying to squeeze lots of cooking into a couple very short days in between baby dancing and laundry and school lessons. The prospect of having to move this bunch has been hanging overhead so I dove into toy organization and a number of other spring cleaning chores. All at once. Not sure what I was thinking other than that I wasn’t doing enough. That is a thought that visits every now and then and tends to throw me into a tailspin. Enough. Maddeningly unquantifiable, that word.
My solution to the enough question was ‘more’. That never works. My food turned out like my power scrapbook sessions. Lots of volume, little satisfaction. This isn’t me.
I came to the computer a bit ago to visit Penny Gardner’s site. I figured some Charlotte Mason thoughts would help me refocus. She had this to say:
Georgia O’Keeffe wrote, "Nobody sees a flower-really it is so small, it takes time. We haven’t time and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time."
…like cooking a satisfying meal takes time. Like creating logical storage solutions takes time. Like greeting my husband at the end of the day takes time. This week we are back to ‘slow’. I will be diligent, but I will be purposeful. I will remember that holding babies and typing narrations and making slow, messy meals together is ‘enough’. I will see the flower this week.
Starry Sky Journal 
I feel like this a lot! I keep thinking that I just need to be faithful in the little things and do one little thing after another and keep on praying that God will make up for the areas that I lack….messed up great projects and meals and all.
So I keep on doing the “little things with great love”. And slowly I make my way through the mountain that is before me and behind me are so many of them I have conquered. Who woudda guessed?! It sure didn’t feel like I was conquering anything at the time. God sure is sneaky! ;o)
God bless!
beautiful post 🙂
I think you are relating what many of us feel. It’s so easy to get caught up in the feeling of “it’s never enough.” It makes one feel so inadequate. But you have also beautifully summed up what our response should be. Lovely post. Thanks!
This is so beautiful, Kim.
Speaking of “logical storage solutions.” Any advice for a growing family to store clothes? Not the ones we can’t wear- just got that under control- but the ones we wear every week. Surely you don’t have 11 dressers and 11 closets in your house, do you? I did find some handy storage things that hang from the tall rod at Dollar General for $5. I’m trying to implement them as a shoe storage in the coat closet and as a 2nd dresser in the kid’s rooms. It seems to be working pretty well. However, once those onsies become bulky jeans and sweaters, we’ll have to live out of laundry baskets for sure and it won’t be because I ‘didn’t have time’ to put up the laundry . 🙂 (On that note, also wanted to ask about a typical cold in your house. How do you manage caring all night long for more than 2 youngsters who aren’t feeling well, administering meds at the right times, and staying sane and rested?)
Nothing spells love like T-I-M-E, does it? TIME to sit and read, TIME to teach math and Latin, TIME to cook a simple meal for the famiy, TIME with your spouse. “compare and despair”. We are all so different and our lives should reflect who we are, not some unattainable ideal. I’d say, Kim, you do it better than most:) Sit and kiss that baby, one of these will be the last one. 🙂
A perfect reminder, that needs to be said (or written) again, and again…..and again. Thank you!
I loved this post. Its quite timely in my life