Quilt Scraps Mom

and today’s the day to get FREE water ice at Rita’s.  Now personally, I’ve become quite addicted to the Misto, which is a shake-like mix of water ice & custard, but unfortunately, that doesn’t count for the freebie.  But I guess I’ll survive.  Check out their website to find the Rita’s nearest you !  If only I wasn’t going to need my winter gloves and snow coat while I was eating it…

     It’s only an hour.  It’s not like traveling around the world.  It’s not even like we have to leave home.  So why on earth is it almost a week since we set the clocks ahead and I’m still dragging around like a world traveler with a serious case of jet lag???

        Don’t get me wrong… I love the fact that I look out my window while cooking dinner and still see the remnants of a sunny day winding to a close.   Soon it’ll be time for lazy evenings at the ball fields, relaxing with my preschooler on our “special lego blanket” while the older kids practice softball and baseball (okay, maybe a lap or two around the walking trail for me isn’t such a bad idea…).  And who could argue with the warming weather and flower buds peeking from beneath the mulch?     

     But somehow that one little hour seems to wreak havoc on our daily schedules.  Sleep doesn’t come easy in the evenings for my night owls, yet my early risers have yet to waver in their determination to begin the day at first light (or even before!).  And I’m left caught in the middle, trying to catch a few moments’ rest in between and still juggle all that needs to be done!

           Sometimes I wish we could at least really “gain” that hour… but would I fritter it away on things that don’t really matter?  Fit in one more thing on my ever-growing list of things to do?  Snatch an extra moment or two of shut-eye?  Or would I invest it in something that counts… an extra bit of cuddling with my preschooler?  Reading “just one more chapter” to my seven-year old?   Getting out one of those board games that always seem to take “too long” and enjoying time with my older girls?  And spending more than just a token stolen moment with the God I claim to love and serve?

      We have twenty-four hours each day… twenty-four precious hours to spend pursuing the purpose for which God placed us on this earth.  Twenty-four hours to love the people He’s put into our lives and to build memories that will last forever.  Yes, time really does change everything! 

     It’s March 4th.  Not exactly spring, but after the second consecutive day of temperatures in the sixties, enough was enough… the snowmen had to go!   Now before you wonder how on earth we managed to keep snowmen from melting in such weather to begin with, I’m not talking about that kind of snowmen.  I’m talking about stuffed snowmen, ceramic snowmen, snowmen on pillows, pictures of snowmen… get my, well, drift?  Yes, I collect snowmen.  All sizes, shapes, and in some rare instances, colors.  And while I relegated anything Christmas to the basement in mid-January, the snowmen just weren’t ready to say good-bye!

     I’ve been thinking for a while that it was time.   But like many things, snowmen removal just didn’t quite make the top of the priority list.  But today it was warm, and too rainy to go outside, and my two little ones were bored… so what was Mom to do?  Send them on a snowman hunt, of course!  From every corner of the house, snowmen converged upon my kitchen counter.  Big ones, little ones… the pile just grew and grew.   And grew.  I swear there weren’t this many last winter!

     So now the snowmen are safely tucked in their tidy blue storage boxes, awaiting next December 1st when they will join the Christmas entourage on display.  The house looks quite barren.  But tomorrow I’ll venture into the black abyss (the basement storage zone) and search for their spring counterparts… bunnies, anyone?

     His mercies are new every morning.  I’ve been clinging to that passage over the last few days, as it has seemed as though the echo of amen would barely fade when I would finding myself needing to get back down on my knees and plead for God’s forgiveness and grace yet again.

     I’m not sure where I got the idea that surrendering my life to God was a once-and-done deal, but I’m quickly finding that it’s more like minute by minute, learning to give over each thought and desire that rises up within me.  Let’s just say it seems my flesh doesn’t plan to go down without a fight!