It was one of those days.
You know the type.
It started at six am this morning and has been going all day long, and it doesn't look like it's gonna end early, either.
Tough, tough, day.
There is grace, though.
I had this moment of awareness, of clarity:
I was teaching the boys. Ben was working through his lesson mostly on his own, and Isaiah and I were plopped down in the middle of the living room working on his math. He has just learned simple addition within the last few lessons, and he was literally adding them together faster than I could lay down the blocks on the workbook page. Here he is, belly on the floor, feet waving in the air, blithely working through the problems. And I think about this time last year, and how worried I was that he had learning delays. He couldn't even understand sequencing and pattern recognition, one of the basic building blocks of math. Counting from one to ten made no sense to him- they were just random sounds and didn't go in order. This is the self same kid that is rattling off answers now!
Some times we get so stuck in the here+now that we forget just how far we've come.
It doesn't make this day any less tough, or the responsibilities any less pressing, but I can honestly say that today was a good day.
I ordered in Chinese.
We read every single book out of the library basket at some point today.
Blankets were in abundance for cuddling.
I turned Adele on in Pandora, and we danced, twirled, and jammed the "bewitching hour" away.
Was it a "perfect" day? Will I be nominated to Mother of the Year by my kids?
No, and I seriously doubt it.
But this is what I know: we've come a long way, and we'll go a ways still. It's the small moments that no one else would notice, the boy on his belly, legs waving over his head, adding. Don't let it pass you by in the small disappointments of life that seem so pressing. They are small beans to the the precious gold of the not-so-everyday accomplishment we take for granted.
Joy you are such an encouragement! We all have those days, I call them pizza days, because sometimes all you can manage at the end of the day is to either put a pizza in to cook or call out for it.
Posted by: Christie Cali | January 06, 2010 at 09:04 AM
So have those days myself.
So encouraged by Isaiah's progress. Gives me hope for my own little man. So glad to hear he is doing well. Those times of wonder for their future are painful though I continue to trust. We have seen some small improvements.
Love the pics too.
Posted by: Sandi | January 06, 2010 at 06:49 PM
Joy,
You have made me cry. I am so encouraged by your blog. When your mom would post the blog, I always felt the same way. Encouraged by how real you are. Your simple efforts to be the best wife and mom that God has called you to be. Now, I received your email and found myself saying yeah, here is her blog address. I just read this recent blog and thought I would post how much of a blessing they are.
Posted by: Natalie Mack | January 08, 2010 at 09:53 AM