It's going to be fine day!

You know when the day just isn't going your way and you look around and wonder what in the world you've gotten yourself into and then the perfect email, phone call or letter comes along and puts things in perspective again? This was mine:

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From The Well Grounded Life
On a scale from 1-10, how extraordinary are you?

She [Brene Brown] has caused me to go deeper in processing this core trap we fall into, this societal distraction that keeps our focus away from the truly important. And that is, at the core, the belief that we are never enough.

We are not smart enough, not thin enough, not happy enough, don’t have enough time, don’t have enough space, don’t have enough energy, don’t have a big enough house, don’t have nice enough clothes, didn’t get enough sleep…it goes on and on.

But what all of these statements are really saying is that we are not enough.

As Brene puts it, we are simply not “extraordinary” and when it comes down to it, our desire to be extraordinary is really a desire for others to perceive us as extraordinary.

When extraordinary becomes the goal (and by extraordinary she emphasizes that what we really mean is “how others perceive us”), that goal strips us of our life.

Because the truth is ordinary moments are where our treasure lies. And no one knows better than a mother.

We are daily, moment by moment, faced with the most ordinary things.

Loading the washer, brushing the hair, matching the socks, tugging at our knees, filling cups of water, cutting off the crust, reading simple books hundreds of times over, packing bags, wiping noses, hugging the hurts, going mad over the constant squabbling, fretting over who our kids are dating.

And when we trade the ordinary for the search of the extraordinary we miss the gold. We miss being present to the gift of joy that is hidden in the folds and creases of our days. And we always have access to our true selves in ordinary moments.

One of the things I love about the honor of helping moms change the trajectory of their lives toward wholeness and health is that it cultivates a practice of tuning in to the here and now. We become our own experts, through skills and tools that help us check in and translate what we hear; to be present to what is really happening, right here, right now.

In our body. In our mind. In our spirit.

The goal is not perfection. The goal is growth.

And when we start to feel stagnant and stuck- it has nothing to do with needing a more extraordinary life– it has to do with identifying what is clogging up the flow, where is growth stagnant.

We can’t grow as mothers in the world if we aren’t growing as women in the world.

The biggest sabotager of growth is the puruit of perfection. And the best fuel for the pursuit of perfection is the belief that we are not enough. Right here, right now. All of us, even the dark spot, the shadows, the imperfect places.

What if we took a deep breath and rested into the knowledge that we have all we need, that we are all we should be, and that we are in the perfect place right here and right now to completely open up to true life and overflowing joy.
You know what’s I’d bet surfaces? Gratitude. And that is to remedy for it all.
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So, in light of that....{wearing my non-extraordinary maternity jeans (yes, still), plain grey t-shirt and dirty hair in braids}

I'm grateful for::

::Jay reading Green Eggs and Ham today. The first book he's picked up and read on his own initiative.
::Hunter and his silly smiles and how he needs jelly spread on every square inch of his bread at lunch time.
::that I am able to stay home with my sick Tyler boy and nurse him back to health.
::Mia. 'nough said :)
::a husband who works nonstop so I can be home and play, teach, feed and love on the aforementioned little blessings.

It's going to be a fine day! :)


Posted with love from my iPhone <3

::right now::

{inspired by soulemama}

:: I am avoiding the piles of laundry to be folded...




:: loving the Robot Warriors the boys made this morning...




:: so happy with the rhythm of our home these days with the help of our daily picture plan along with some daily reorganization...




:: watching my sweet baby sleeping on my bed...




Hope you are having a beautiful Tuesday! :)

Amelang Update Part 1 - My Full Time Job

This week I embarked on a new adventure in life…a stay at home mom. I’ve worked at our family’s music school for seven years. I started when I was pregnant with Jay. It was a good job. I enjoyed it very much. I was only “part time” and things were flexible as far as being able to take the boys with me or missing a day if someone was sick. Even though it wasn’t a full time 9 to 5 job, I still missed out on the full experience of being at home with my children. I was always thinking about a bank deposit or wondering if I needed to go in to return phone calls or when I was going to make it to Wal-Mart to buy more paper towels. It was a full time brain load.

It’s been a good, long run. Now I’m moving on.

This is my first week of being at home and I am loving it. It’s noticeably different to me. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel. Sad? Anxious? Happy? I had no idea what to expect. My last day was weird. I was at the school all day (as I had been all week) I finished up what I was working on and said I was leaving. I looked around at all of the things that still needed to be done and it felt strange to leave and know I wasn’t coming back on Monday to work again. I felt like I was leaving a mess, things undone. Well, I was really…but not in a bad way. They are preparing for the upcoming school year and have about a month’s worth of work left to do to get ready. So I finished my tasks, actually hung around about an hour after I said I was leaving because it felt so weird to leave, then finally I packed up my crew for the last time as a music school employee and went home.

I noticed it on Sunday night as I talked to my sister about a birthday party for my mom the next day. I realized that I didn’t have to call anyone and see what I need to take care of before I left or drop in to check messages or feel guilty because I really should be updating the website or passing out flyers for the upcoming semester. Nope. None of it. I just got to leave. Oh, what I feeling! What a glorious feeling!

I have been thinking a lot about this SAHM thing. As I was putting the 285^th load of laundry in the washer this morning I wondered why I want to do this. Why is this so important to me? I don’t have an answer yet except that it’s a desire that God has built into me…women…mothers. I am so grateful and hopeful that God will bless us and supplement my income in new and exciting ways. (more on that in a later post)

I just finished reading “For the Children’s Sake” by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. I read it on several recommendations and it’s wonderful. This passage was very thought provoking for me.

Cops and robbers. Mud pies. Scratches from climbing trees. Adventures on tricycles. One child stares at an ant carrying a crumb, and a few others start a club in a garage.

Certain factors encourage play. It is often easier home-based than institutional-based. There should be space, and lots of free time. Children need to be outdoors (for hours). They need to make noise, mess, and to have access to raw materials (old clothes for costumes, hats, tables to turn into camp, etc., etc.). They need privacy from intruding adults, but the need interested support in quarrels, thinking of another way around a problem, providing food, and, at the end, bringing the children tactfully back into the world where supper is ready, the camp has to be packed up, children are tired and ready for the soothing routine of evening stories.

Grown-ups need time if their life is to support this kind of play. The children have to matter more than the furniture (but children don’t mind at all sticking to the boundaries). This means saying no to too many time –consuming activities both for adults and children. It means welcoming their friends, and sympathetically diverting others who will “spoil our game. We just got to the good part” (said with feeling as a destructive two-year-old blundered into the “camp”).

Doesn’t that sound dreamy? I want my life to support this kind of play. The thought of not working was a little scary at first. The more John and I thought about it and talked about the kind of childhood we want our boys to have, it only made sense to be a full time, home school mom. Don’t worry, I know every day is not going to be cherries and lemonade but I am excited to see the wonderful, educational, and fun memories we get to make together. Wednesday night at dinner (after a long day of playing at the swimming pool) Jay was talking about the kids he is going to have one day (he does that a lot) and he said that he’ll teach his boys to wrestle the way daddy wrestles with him when it’s time for bed. He’ll say “my dad taught me this and now I’m going to teach you.” I asked him what he will say about me and he said “that you like me a lot.” It’s true…I do! I want more memories like these! I just love it! Don’t you just love making memories with these amazing little people that have been given to us? I’m constantly amazed…I love it. Truly.