Cherishing the Ordinary

Thursday was just one of those days where I had to stop and thank God for making it ordinary.  Ordinary doesn’t happen often in our family.  We really don’t do normal around here much.  Probably because “here” changes so often.  Nothing very special happened yesterday….

In the morning Claire and Isaiah participated in the summer activities held for the missionary kids here at JAARS.  They meet with other kids to play games, do crafts, learn Bible verses and swim.  Now that Isaiah is riding a two-wheeler without training wheels, they go by bike.  I think that’s one of those “rites of passage” for a boy isn’t it?  Some pretty Big Stuff parked his bike in front of the activity building that morning!

Jon also went very eagerly off to play work at the aviation hangar.  A spankin’ brand-new Kodiak airplane sits in its shade while “Mr. Project Coordinator” happily oversees its preparations for Papua New Guinea.  It’s even got that “new car” smell.  I know.  I checked.  And we know what that smell does to the male species—suddenly the whole world is a much brighter place.  <grin>

Mommy meanwhile enjoyed the quiet alone with the Bible and a cup of Scottish Breakfast Tea.  Time for reflection on a chapter in Matthew turned out to be very helpful when a friend called later to chat.  (I love it when God arranges real life application of something I just read in his Word.)

I washed dishes, wrote e-mails, and fetched children.  We all ate lunch together.  The kids and I played games.  I refereed bickering matches, picked up dirty laundry, looked for missing toys, helped Claire make chocolate chip cookies, and ate too many.  We apologized to the neighbor boy, washed four very dirty feet, watched PBS Kids, read bedtime stories and listened to the thunder.

At the end of the day, (after kissing two watermelon-scented foreheads goodnight), I determined to record this day and save it under “Days I Want to Cherish”.  It wasn’t perfect.  It wasn’t all fun, and it definitely wasn’t spectacular.  It was, however, blissfully ordinary and for that I find I’m very thankful.