New Eyes.

I am being mindful to take life more slowly these days.  I was on the phone with someone yesterday and she said to me, "They say that, when you're raising kids, the days go by slowly and the years quickly."  I really needed to hear that yesterday when life was somewhat frustrating: temper tantrums, coloring with crayons on the floor, fridge, and cabinets when I wasn't looking, lots of busy-work to get done during nap-time.  So, today, I decided to take things more slowly.

I clean a friend's house on Wednesday mornings.  I love that job.  I love the feeling of putting things in order and blessing a family in that way.  I prayed for each member of the family for whom I clean - special prayers for each person based on what's going on in their life right now.  It made the cleaning job more meaningful to know that there was spiritual work taking place at the same time.

I spent all of Stella's nap with God - bliss.

Stella and I went to the bank after she woke up from her nap, and then we walked around Durham for about an hour, doing whatever she wanted to do.  Have you ever experienced the world - really tried to see the world around you - through the eyes of someone who is seeing most things for the first time?  She stopped to smell every flower she saw.  She played in the crunchy leaves for about fifteen minutes straight, picking them up and throwing them in the air while shouting, "Weeeeeee!"  She said, "hi" to everybody we passed on the sidewalk.  She talked to me about how pretty her princess sticker was, the one she got at the bank for being so patient.  We got home and colored in her coloring book together - when did I stop coloring?  Why?  Thank you, God for a chance to start again.  

I am so thankful for this chance to see things anew.  I know that God delights in me in an even greater way that I delight in my daughter.  She is a gift to me to help me see the world fresh.  I love my life when I look at it through her eyes.