Takin' It Easy

Oh, how I love me some sunshine.

This past sunny Friday afternoon the kids and I did something we rarely do.

We hung out.

I know, I know. How abnormal is THAT, you're asking yourself. Very. Usually the minute we walk in the door after school I am barking out orders. Take a shower! Do you homework! Pick up your rooms! Choose tomorrow's clothes! No T.V.! Read your books!

Usually I'm zooming around the kitchen emptying the dishwasher, making lunches for the next day, signing school folders, folding laundry so the kids have clean underwear for the next day, and attempting to prepare something that resembles a healthy dinner.

Bossy mommy? Maybe. Task-oriented? Perhaps. But, this all works for us and the kids' strict 7pm bedtime.

But not Friday. Friday when we got home we went out to the back patio. It started with the 3 little Indians just jabbing these pinwheels into the rock-ridden ground we call flower beds here in the Hill Country. Gotta love the Dollar Tree.




Our small task morphed into a major goof-off session on the patio.
Goldfish, wine, and all.



Priya grabbed her camera (as usual), and the photo sessions began. It helped that we had "High School Musical 2--Nonstop Dance Party" blaring from the patio speakers. Definitely inspired us to strike a pose.

My pretty girl.



Priya got a hold of the camera, and, being the shutterbug that she is, she began non-stop picture-taking. Snap, snap, snap, snap, snap....



Who knows what got into me (maybe it was the Pinot Grigio...), but at one point I felt a cartwheel was in order.



Then I decided to bust a move. Priya just kept on shooting.



I tell ya what--after the last month I've had, cutting loose like this was like a cool drink of water. The Walk to Emmaus begins this Thursday, and all of the planning since October is about to come to fruition. God is in control, for sure, but I think He did call me to this leadership role with the sole purpose of having me learn to lean on Him a bit more...not just for the Walk but for everything in my life. I can only pray that on Sunday, March 29th--when the weekend is over-- He will be smiling down on all of us...thinking, "Well done, good and faithful servants."

As I sat on the patio (and did cartwheels and busted a geriatric move) I remembered two powerful posts that have stuck with me this week. Both Catherine and Heather prompted us to ask ourselves who we are more like...Mary or Martha. If you don't know this story in the bible, Mary is a woman who took the time to sit and just "be" when Jesus came to visit. Her sister, Martha, chose to do all the busy little tasks she thought needed to be tended to when Jesus entered their home.

I am a Martha. Plain and simple. Sometimes I choose it. Sometimes it's just the way it has to be given my current season of life. I don't always like it. But, often it's something that cannot be helped.

Friday, however, I am happy to report that I was a Mary. I didn't worry about bedtimes, baths, homework, or the house chores that are still undone. I didn't freak out about all of the Emmaus details that were weighing on me that day. The kids and I laughed, acted silly, laughed some more, relaxed, breathed in the fresh hill country Spring air, soaked in some rays, and enjoyed one another.

Yes, it was only one day. Since then I've been consumed with finalizing plans for the big weekend. But, hopefully, I'll recall how good it felt to just hang out and do it more often. Hopefully I'll revisit that state of mind known as living in the moment. Hopefully I have begun to form a habit that will become more familiar to me after the Walk weekend has come and gone.

For I cannot imagine anything but good coming from more time spent just takin' it easy.