Twirls 'n Curls

On one of the first days they canceled school due to the coronavirus pandemic, our youngest, Natalie (10), was practicing her cello when she stopped and ran over to me. "Guess what, Mom?" she asked. "I was practicing another song and the first few notes sounded kinda like 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow.' So I kept listening to the notes and tried to figure out the rest of the line playing by ear... and I did! Listen!" Then she carefully played a melody that would have made Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz proud . That conversation got me thinking: Learning to play by ear... one note at a time... without the benefit of instructions [aka sheet music]... isn't that what we're all trying to do right now? ( Note : Playing by ear in the music world r efers to  playing  compositions without the benefit of sheet music. Instead, the musician would simply use his/her  ear  to feel out the composition and follow the musical progressions.*) Maybe it's tryin...

Retrieved from: https://busybeingjennifer.com/give-thanks-free-chalkboard-printable/ I'm sitting here on Thanksgiving night, 50 feet from the beach in a beautiful Mexican vacation home, listening to one of the worst windstorms I've heard in at least a decade. As with many rentals, it's obvious ours isn't cut out for this kind of weather. The wind is howling around and through the windows, rattling the glass and creating a noise similar to a tea-kettle whistle, with rain seeping in through the edges. (I'm also, I should add, typing in the dark at the kitchen table, trying to provide support to a scared, tired kiddo who doesn't like the storm any more than I do. Apparently, even paradise has its rainy days.) It's yet another reminder of a powerful lesson I've been learning, or re-learning, recently: Embrace life. All of it. The good, the bad, the funny, the downright ugly. It's all there anyway. We can hate it, and become bitter. We can ign...

The other day, I was scrolling through some pictures on my phone when I thought, That looks like it was so much fun!  After which, I immediately thought, Wait a minute, stupid, YOU were THERE - YOU took the pictures!  That's when I realized, we do a lot - I mean, A LOT of stuff. Work. School. Volleyball. YoungLife. Drama Class. Voice Lessons. Improv. Family Nights. Church. And the list goes on each week. (Don't even get me started on the animal shelter and Rubix Cube Club!) And while I feel I do a good job of being fully present in each activity and event as it happens (that's something I've had to work at), I don't always make the space to pause and reflect on all that's happening. It's like I take the picture and move on. Sometimes, we need to mourn the end of something, before we can really move forward with our lives. Other times, we need to give ourselves a break after completing a difficult task. Or maybe we just need pause to celebrate the good th...

We try hard to get away together a few times each year - it helps us remember why we like each other! It was midnight when I opened our front door and slipped inside. I was coming back from taking my parents to the airport after their holiday visit, and I was both sad and exhausted. Cold, too - even in Phoenix, it's chilly in late December. Just as I was about to crawl into my side of the bed, I realized my husband was all cozied up in my spot, fast asleep. Total honesty here: At first I was a tiny bit annoyed. Tom always stays on his own side - what's the deal? I just want be warm and asleep like he is!   Suddenly, a memory flashed in my mind, from our earliest years of marriage. We were flat broke and working at a church about 80 miles away every weekend. To save money, we kept the central heat off at home and used a small space heater to warm up whichever room we were in. When we came home on Sundays, if we were lucky it would be around 48 degrees inside ou...

I saw it.... in the way my nine-year old came up beside her sister during the worship service, circled her arm around her sister's waist, and began singing softly.  I heard it.... she was talking cheerfully to a roomful of preschoolers,  "Okay now, in 5 minutes we're going to clean up, and I need you all to help, ok?"   Two minutes later, with strained politeness, she added: "Let's be sure we're talking nicely to each other, ok?!"  I felt it... at 9:00pm, just after I'd tucked her in, when her eyes flew open in panic, "My spelling! I forgot to to my spelling! Mom, I CAN'T turn it in late. I have to do it NOW!"  I flinched, knowing she came by her perfectionism honestly.  The good, the bad, the sweet, the ugly. My girls are mirror images of me and my parenting, with smatterings of my husband thrown in. The way they speak to each other, take care of each other, and leave trails of discarded activities behind so...

So young... and so clueless! Order. Efficiency. Productivity.  These are words I'd use to describe my life... before kids. Back when I crammed 4 years of college into 3 years, or worked 40 hours a week plus spent 20 hours each weekend helping start a church in Los Angeles. I was stretched. I was exhausted. And I loved it. Just before we had our first child, my husband took a job as the senior pastor of a small, rural church, and I stepped down from my job in a busy office to be home with the baby and help him at the church. I’d read some books on motherhood to prepare myself, but all in all, I wasn’t too worried. I mean, I’d been taking care of executives for quite a few years by that point. Their needs are much more complex than a tiny baby’s.  How hard could this be, really?   As it turned out, much harder than anything I’d ever done.  What I remember the most about those early days was the overwhelming frustration of not being able to get anything ...