May You Be Blessed

The only reason I have been able to be rather diligent in my posting this week is because my husband is currently between jobs.  In addition to that, he has been under the weather and therefore hanging around the house.  When he is well, he is invariably off working on some handyman project for family or friends.  I don't mind this at all.  It keeps him busy and happy and it is a great way to give back to those people who always help us out in a pinch.  So this morning he is better and it is back to a variation on life as usual.

Life as usual for me means that when I sat down to check my email this morning, a two year old little girl climbed up in my lap, sat on my desk, put her hands on my cheeks, and shook my head violently from side to side while screaming, "I LOOOOOOOOVE YOOOOUUUUU!!!"  Meanwhile, a three year old little boy was scaling the washing machine to sort through our pantry items and see if he could score some candy for breakfast.  Needless to say, I haven't gotten much accomplished.

I have talked to people who think stay-at-home parents have nothing to do.  This attitude astounds and amazes me.  I serve with the preschool ministry at my church (because I'm a glutton for punishment).  One day I was serving with a young woman who I do not normally volunteer with.  She had just graduated from college and therefore knew everything.  She found out I was a lawyer and that was very exciting.  Then she found out I had given up my practice in order to raise a family.  It was like I just told her that I had voluntarily had a medically unnecessary lobotomy.  She told me that she and her husband planned to have children in a few years but that she would never be a stay-at-home mom.  She would be so bored.

I learned a nifty trick from a friend of mine in recovery for times when you encounter a person like this.  Instead of saying something that you are later going to need to make an amends for in order to maintain your spiritual health or biting your tongue bloody, just mentally repeat the phrase "May you be blessed."  It is at times a bit like the "SERENITY NOW!" episode of Seinfeld, but it really does help.  If you say it to yourself long enough, your temper will abate and you might even start meaning it.  I started feeling a little sorry for her.  After all, I said I would never be a Baptist or a blogger and look at me now.  I can see into that young woman's future and it might just involve mornings where she too says things like "That's the cat's breakfast.  Yours is on the table."

So today's blog is going to be short, sweet, and not in anyway related to the meaning of life.  I just wanted to say to all my stay-at-home peeps and to the rest of you as well, may you be blessed.  May God bless you and keep you and may you have some time for yourself today to rest in His presence.  Without it resulting in gum in anyone's hair...