the commonplace becomes different

I function at about 25% during the cold weather months…just enough to get the necessary things done, but still pretty much hibernating. Yesterday was beautiful. The grass is starting to turn green. Flowers are popping up. And Ashley is coming back outside.

After a full day around our house, I told the kids to throw on their shoes and we were headed to my in-laws to soak up the last couple hours of the day.

While paddling around they looked up to see our dog running by with a squirrel in her mouth. I attempted to intervene, but quickly gave up out of fear of a beagle that had completely lost her mind. The kids’ expressions in this make me laugh. I’m so happy I was snapping pictures at just the right moment!
While they paddled around, I sat on the dock writing in my journal and snapping pictures. They came closer to me with smiles, so I picked up my camera – it is not often they are all close together for a picture. As soon I as started to take a photo, a bottle flipped towards me.
WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THE RESURGENCE OF BOTTLE FLIPPING?! Seriously, I am a pretty patient person, but I think if one more bottle flips near me or I hear the sound of one more bottle flipping on a table I might completely lose it. Yesterday they were flipping bottles out of our second story window. Bottle flipping everywhere. All the time. Whose kid started this? We can’t be friends. 😉Between bottles flipping by my head, a dog running around with a dead squirrel, and taking a few pictures of my kids – I jotted a few notes from Oswald Chambers. I’ve been reading through my old copy of My Utmost For His Highest again. A couple sentences this week have really stuck with me and I am guessing they might be significant to some of you too.

“It requires the inspiration of God to go through drudgery with the light of God upon it. Some people do a certain thing and the way in which they do it hallows that thing for ever afterwards. It may be the most commonplace thing, but after we have seen them do it, it becomes different.” (My Utmost For His Highest, Feb. 19)

It may be the most commonplace thing, but after we have seen them do it, it becomes different. – I began thinking of all the people I know that when I watch them do certain ‘commonplace’ things – those things become anything but common. The way they move, speak, and respond makes that common thing, so very uncommon. It becomes hallowed and mesmerizing.

My thoughts also drifted to motherhood, specifically about how I mother.  My days are filled to the brim with what is considered commonplace. However, I look over at my kids and recognize how extraordinary the common is with them. I don’t want to be a mom that survives these days, but it is easy to slip into that mode. I want to mother in a way that life naturally pours out of me and into my kids. I want to mother in a way that makes the commonplace different. That it would be hallowed and maybe even a little mesmerizing.