Growth

Ahhh, the weekend is here. Saturday mornings the kids are allowed to watch parent-selected and approved entertainment media so we can SLEEP IN!! Also, the clever mama has cottage cheese and cold cereal on hand for "do it yourself" mornings so the kids can feed themselves a decent breakfast.

Julia: who does seem to love school, to my relief. At least, this week she does. She has been spending time sitting on Papa's lap looking at cars (he's eternally shopping for a new one) and yesterday she convinced him to look for pink cars! So he relented and looked up some youtube videos of pink cars. At least it's an Audi, but how could someone actually paint an Audi pink?? Julia can understand. =) She may be his little race car driver girl someday. But he might have to get used to pink race cars.

Last night, we popped open a small watermelon and the kids went to town...

Aidan eyes the mommy with the camera shoved into his face...

And Julia really dug in!

A good friend turned us on to a very cool co-op locally. It's an organic farm and you can sign up for their weekly harvest box. Inside, you get whatever is in season, year round! On their website, you can opt out of things you are allergic to, or simply don't like. But you can always add eggs, bread, honey and extra fruit. It's very cool and keeps us in fresh veggies once a week, supporting local growers and organic farming.

On to the painting... I promise, I tried to paint this week. But I was so unmotivated, I could hardly stand it. So I taped everything off and forced myself to start cutting in the edges. I gave Julia the roller this time, although this isn't her room, it's the school room. Here she is, helping...

And picking at paint on her knee. Notice the odd floor taping style? I taped the carpet, then pulled it back and taped it away from the wall and stuck another strip of tape behind that. It is SO HARD to keep the tape from drying to the wet wall with all that poofy carpet behind it. This seems to work, although I can't say I've tried to pull it off yet. Frankly, I don't care anymore. ;)

So three walls are cut in and painted as high as I can reach standing up, and it's been that way for three days, now. I did get an awesome idea from sister Calysta... Magnetic primer! So since one wall will be bright red, I think I'll primer it before with a couple layers then put the red on. I'll let you know how it goes! =) The reviews are iffy on how much it can hold, but I only plan to magnet papers of the kids' school work, nothing heavy.

A few thoughts on "growth" that have been on my mind...

I read that grapes will always favor the production of new growth over fruit production and because of this, vinedressers must be ruthless in cutting back the new growth. Because the only reason a vinedresser has grape vines is for the fruit. Growth for it's own sake is nice, leafy and lovely, but fruitless. Growth for the sake of fruit, now there's something of value. And of course, I've been thinking about this in my own life. Growth for the sake of growth alone is a pointless endeavor. But to grow and be ruthlessly cut back in order for a large supply of fruit in my life is a much more worthwhile way to spend my time.

Ever since we've been sick for 3 and a half weeks, I've felt behind. Every activity I do isn't an accomplishment, it's a catch-up chore with thirty more to do after it. The school year is starting and I'm not ready for homeschool. My home is in the midst of painting projects which means furniture is all over the place, laundry is piling up and I just hope the kids will act up so I can assign them some bathroom cleaning and vacuuming. =) So even though so much is getting done and I can point to a million things I've worked on, the sense of accomplishment is missing.

So instead of focusing on accomplishments for their own sake, I need to remember the fruits that should be developing along the way. Like patience, for one. Instead of that "growth for growths sake" goal of finishing painting, I need to focus on being patient when the kids want to "help out". Help create a memory for them... "Remember when we helped Mama paint the house? Remember how I painted this room and she said I did a good job?". Maybe I should watch their little faces as they focus on doing their best to please me. It's really just a simple perspective shift, but oh, how hard it is to actually SHIFT!

I was reminded that the purpose of fruit is to glorify God. And there are lots of other fringe benefits to having fruit in our lives, but it's important to remember that glorifying Him is really what it's all about. I guess it is easy to get carried away putting my energy into growing when that energy should be spent producing fruit. So you know what that means! Time for the shears, the snip and chop of things that take my energy away from fruiting.

Lindsay O'Conner,(my inspiration for the growth thoughts) in her book If Mama Goes South, We're All Going With Her, talks at length about giving from nothing, growth, fulfillment and how to meet the demands of Motherhood with grace, joy and a wealth of resources and how to combat the inevitable stress, emptiness, loneliness and negativity that can come with being needed by everyone in your family. This book makes me cry every time I read the first chapter, I can identify so incredibly well with the emptiness, impotence and frustration in her little story of a Mama going south. But this book did not leave me the same person as when I picked it up. I wish that I was everything I purpose for myself, but at least I'm on a better track for becoming a woman, and wife and a mother that embraces my roles with gusto! With fervor! And secure in the knowledge that this is where God wants me and He can fill me to overflowing so I never need to fear being empty or having nothing to give.

Have a great weekend! =)