It has been so long since I've joined Gina for week of Embrace the Ordinary. But I'm living my ordinary life every day here, so I might as well celebrate it with a blog post :)
There was a time a few months ago when I stepped away from Facebook for two or three weeks. I only checked it occasionally, and commented on friends posts and photos, but I didn't post anything myself.
The things I usually post are the silly things my kids say, the exasperating things that they do, the milestones they reach. I remember a day when Clare said something out-of-this-world cute, and my first thought was, "I'm putting that on Facebook." I was about to do it right away but stopped. When did it become a need in me to remind the world how adorable three year olds are? And my three year old in particular?
Why was I so compelled to convince everyone how funny, wonderful, cute, etc... my children are? Isn't the most important thing that I embrace those things? The quiet moments at home - when they flub a word, fall on their bum, or put pencils in the freezer to see what will happen - those don't have to be for everyone. Those sweet moments, the silly faces, the baby's first words, the bear hugs and tender kisses, the hysterical things they say ----- they're for me.
I thought immediately of Mary when at the Presentation of our Lord, heard the the words of Simeon and "pondered all these things in her heart." I spent the next few weeks trying to let go of my need to "share" all the Facebook-worthy childhood moments and instead "ponder them in my heart."
After a few weeks of intentionally keeping the sweet moments for myself, I started to feel like I held a secret treasure deep in my mother's heart. I had a renewed appreciation for my children and all their antics and all the life and love and joy and craziness they bring to our home - and it wasn't measured by the number of Facebook "likes." It was a fullness of my heart and a spirit of gratitude for the gifts that my children are to me.
So... in a funny twist whereby I end this post about "keeping things to myself" and "pondering them all in my heart," I share with you two sweet moments that happened during those few weeks. These little videos are perfectly representative of the type of moments that I've been holding dear. I'm sharing these with you as a glimpse of the ordinary moments of motherhood I've been embracing. But I still have a treasure trove of ordinary moments that I'm holding close -- they're just for me to ponder and love <3
I was cooking dinner and stepped out of the kitchen and couldn't find James when I came back in...
The house was a disaster, dinner was taking forever to make, and Clare was just drawing and singing Soon and Very Soon...
I love this. I'm not on Facebook, but I have the same thoughts from time to time about the blog. I really do just keep it for our family who is out of town, but it has tuned into a scrapbook of our family's life. I love going back and rereading all those little things my kids said, or looking at the silly pictures they drew. It can really soothe my heart on those rough days. And you kiddos are adorable. But you know that ;)
ReplyDeletei agree. while i don't mind sharing a little every now and then, i like to keep their childhood and all its antics private or share with those that know us well.
ReplyDeleteAh, this is so brilliant. I love the idea to treasure things just for ourselves. I think I'll keep that in mind this summer, and have a notebook handy in the kitchen where I can hand-write and record some of the sweet things, instead of FBing it.
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