A New Day

I like to listen to sermons when I am stretching at the gym before my workout. It centers me to hear God's word preached while stretching and breathing. It is a nice way to enter a workout, putting the distractions of the kids who are downstairs in the childcare out of my mind. It is another way that I can find time to spend with God. It is one of my favorite parts of my workout.

When we lived in the Bay area we attended Menlo Park Presbyterian Church (MPPC) which has some amazing teachers, including the senior pastor John Ortberg. MPPC was one of the high points of our lives in the Bay Area. It was hard to say goodbye to that church, though we were so happy to come home to our wonderful church here in the Pacific Northwest. But because of technology I can still hear the Sunday sermon each week on my iPod. If you have not heard John Ortberg or Scotty Scruggs teach, you really should listen. You can find them online or you can subscribe to the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church Sermon Cast in either audio or video podcasts at the iTunes store.

I write all this because I was listening last week to something Pastor John was teaching about prayer. It seems that prayer is all around me right now, as I am still working my way through the stack of prayer books I bought last fall and also our pastor just finished a series on prayer as well. Think God might be telling me something?

But what struck me as I was stretching and listening, was was not about prayer as much as it was about how we define a day. In Hebrew times, the Sabbath started at sundown. A new day began as the sun set, not as the sun rose as we often think today. This makes so much sense to me. As someone who is a night owl and doesn't like to go to bed early, I know that my day is often determined by how much sleep I got the night before, not how much sleep I am going to get tonight. My sleep, my meals, my quiet time at the end of the day is what really prepares me to face the next day. Any mom who is home all day with her kids will tell you that it feels like our day ends when Daddy walks in the door, or those kids are put to bed. That is when we are finally able to be ourselves for a few moments. That is when I feel like I am most alive. But then I am a night person.

I like this idea. If I thought of starting a new day as the sun set, would that change my perspective and possibly my behavior? If I thought of my day starting first with sleep would I better prepare myself for a good night's sleep? If I thought of the day starting with family time, rest, rejuvenation and then ending with my working hours, would that help me to see my priorities a little more clearly?

It was an interesting fact that I heard while listening to a sermon on my iPod while preparing to work out. It got me thinking. I saw my day in a different way. I thought about how God ordered the universe, how he set the world in order and how meant for us to order our days, our weeks and our lives. It got me thinking about ideas beyond myself. And that makes me feel alive.

Oh brothers

Yesterday I was reading through some Psalms on my reading plan and this verse at the beginning of Psalm 133 caught my eye.

"How good and pleasant it is
when brothers live together in unity!"

This verse is so true! We can have so much fun as a family when the boys are being kind to one another. There are quiet mornings of playing Pokemon in their rooms that allow Mommy a few extra precious minutes of sleep. There are sweet sounds of them playing flying Flamingo and on the rarest of occasions one of the big boys can be found reading a book to Little One. These are the moments that make my heart full.

And then there is the bickering, the fighting, the competition and teasing. The mornings I am woken by screaming and tattling. The visions of hands slapping at each other in the back of the minivan. The meanness that reminds me that even my adorable children are sinful. Everyone talks about the innocence of children which is true in a worldly way, but children also demonstrate how ugly we can be to one another over our toys, our insecurities, our need for attention.

I wish I had the magic formula for creating peace and unity in my house among the brothers. But unfortunately I don't.

Instead I try to survive the battles and enjoy those fleeting moments of peace.

The Sun Has Arrived

I don't know where it got misplaced this spring, but the sun has finally made a real appearance in the skies above which means that I am now in summer mode. I would love to stay focused, reading and writing consistently, but the truth is that once the sun comes out here, all intelligent thought leaves and we start hanging outside later, meeting friends at the park, and enjoying the freedom that comes with summer. I still have a pile of books I want to read and my one year Bible reading to do so hopefully that will jog some deeper thoughts to rise above the sun induced mist that keeps me in the moment and limits the flitting of ideas around my mind. My goal is that this not turn into just a wordy scrapbook of our summer (though I do want to record the fun we have when it might amuse or give someone a good idea) but that it will continue to be a place I can escape my real world and delve into those things that make me feel real, thoughts and ideas.

But right now I am actually having fun being a fun mom. I think the sun coming out has really improved my mood so it is easier for me to enjoy the kids. Also, summer means all sorts of grand adventures, for the big boys this week is day camp and for Little One and I, we are enjoying the park, time with friends and lunch dates together. Next week starts swim lesson for all three boys at the same time (I won the lottery apparently) and more freedom to our days. More trips to Baskin Robbins and picnics at the park. More opportunities to listen to my boys play together when they don't know I am listening. A recent conversation I heard after Hockey Boy must have accidently hit Little One with a ball while playing hockey in the garage. :

Hockey Boy: Little One are you tough?

Little One stops crying and starts to calm down.

Hockey Boy: You are tough. I'm sorry I hurt you. But remember we are tough.

More water squirters and sidewalk chalk. More good books and lazy afternoons reading. More water fountains and sandboxes. More crops to water for Middle Man. More bike riding and lego building.

More USA soccer wins in the World Cup.

I am loving summer so far. Check back in a few weeks. I may have a 3.5 year old for sale.

For the kids?

I took the boys strawberry picking this morning with a friend which was way more fun than I expected. On the way home we stopped at our (my) favorite hamburger place to grab some yummy cheeseburgers. I also decided to be extra nice and let each boy have their own kid's chocolate shake. Normally we split one between the three of them but since I am such a nice mommy I decided to splurge.

Guess who enjoyed all the leftovers.



Yes, that would be my night stand, next to the my bed, where I drank a whole lot of leftover chocolate shake. Yummy! Win-win yet again.