Just a Normal Monday

Today was just a normal Monday.

After toast and fruit this morning, we worked on projects at the kitchen table with markers, stickers, and stamps, took a little walk to our neighborhood mailbox, did our typical chores, ate noodles, tomatoes, and strawberries for lunch, and did the drive to preschool.

While the kids napped, I had some phone calls, made a batch of brownies, worked on some laundry, unloaded the dishwasher, and nursed my baby.

A totally typical day in my life as a stay-at-home mama.

After we picked up Micah from school, we spontaneously decided to stop at the park.  The 70 degree, sunny afternoon was begging to be enjoyed, so we stopped to play - for just a bit.  I hadn't planned to stop, so I didn't have a diaper bag and had to get home to put together the pizzas I planned to make for dinner.

So as I stood there at the park, Sophia strapped into her carrier on my chest, sun shining on us all, I just wanted to freeze that moment and soak in the joy of the ordinary.

It was such an ordinary day.
Such an ordinary moment.
But I just wanted to capture it all...

Ella's tiny, tenth-percentile-on-the-charts body bouncing through the park in her striped leggings and flip-flops...the way she still holds her arms in the air as she runs and the way her hips wiggle as she moves.  It's almost like a dance-run that she does.

Samuel and Micah - inseparable lately - digging in the sand, running up the grassy hill, and talking through those "trumpets," as Sammy calls them, the speaker/microphone-things that are at the parks where the kids can talk back and forth from yards away.  They would say "Hi, Micah," "Hi, Sammy," over and over again, decide to switch locations, and run past each other to get to the opposite "trumpet" and do it all over again.

I cheered for each of them as they went down the slide, I held Sophia's baby-soft hands and stroked her arms as she contentedly took in all that was happening around her, and pushed Ella in the swing, tickling her legs and listening to her amazing giggle.

Like I said, nothing out of the ordinary...but SO good.

I wanted to freeze that moment and remember Mondays where we threw on sweats, caught up on laundry, and played at the park.  I wanted to always remember their sweet, little voices and the ways in which they move and talk and play.  I wanted to soak up their playing together, doing everything together, and thank God that I have FOUR kids.  FOUR friends.

I want to give thanks in the ordinary, when life is okay.
When the routine is working.
When I have found my rhythm.
Because I know that another day, perhaps even tomorrow, my rhythm might be off.
But for today, I had a rhythm, and it was good.
I enjoyed it.
And I am thankful for the ordinary, for sunny days and littles all around me.

And I just want to remember.