the plainest of days

My daughter-in-love Jenny wrote a recent blog post about the ordinary happenings in life with toddlers. You can read it here. It got me thinking about the imperceptible value in our plainest of days. I think mothers are the most aware of this. Or should be.

Can you remember things from childhood that meant the most? Was it visiting Disney World or making the elite soccer team? For me, it was the smallest things that had the greatest meaning. Once my mother took my hand as we walked up our driveway. She began skipping and encouraged me to do the same, throwing her head back and laughing. And I remember her helping with my reading as she hung laundry on the clothesline.

One summer I gave each of my children a small plot by our deck for their own garden. They chose and planted their seeds. You'd think we'd gone to London! How proud they were of their over-planted plots. Katie even grew corn!

The impact of these fleeting moments can easily escape us. Baking cookies together, playing with playdoh or sidewalk chalk, watering flowers, a picnic supper in the park, digging for worms, even mopping the kitchen floor together ... these are the ingredients of a rich childhood and motherhood well-spent. Vacations are fun, but I believe it's in doing life, the gritty and monotonous day-in-day-out stuff that anchors a child.

And then one day (doesn't every grandmother say this?) those toddlers will be taller than us, get married or land a job, and walk out our front door for the last time.

Happy Mother's Day. Be content with an ordinary day.

... I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

Philippians 4:11

my boys having a plain day in 1989