Monday, October 15, 2007

Why Not?



I am in the process of learning a very important lesson about parenting. It has taken me some time to get into the rhythm of having a daily schedule, something that provides structure (and ultimately freedom) to my days at home with my family. In many ways, I have become an order loving, aspiring woman and am slowly decluttering many layers and levels of my life.


The flipside of this newfound order, is that in trying to keep it up, I can sometimes forget what it's all for.


So that's where my four-year-old comes in.


This morning, in the fresh-breaking dawn light, I awoke to a high-pitched squeal and excited exclamation, "Today is a party day! Wake-up, Mama! I need streamers and tape and all kinds of decorations!"


I groggily opened my eyes and asked "What?!"


"Mama, it's a party day! Let's celebrate!" And this morning, for some reason, a voice in my head asked "Why not?"


So, we pulled out the streamers, and decided it was the day's birthday. Because after all, a new day is born each morning, right? So we hung them up with electrical tape (that's all I could find) at various angles and heights around the house. For a birthday cake, we piled our pancakes high and lit a firecracker candle with glee.


The whole day was party-themed. We played games, sang Happy Birthday, had a family dance party to Irish jigs (The Chieftains) and generally maintained a celebratory spirit.


And you know what? I don't think any of us will every forget it. At a few points during the day, I thought to myself, "We should do this kind of thing more often. After all, this is what I imagined parenthood to be. And it can be this way when I say 'why not?' more often and 'not today' less.


At the end of the day, while peeling streamers from every nook, I felt thankful again, for the way my children teach me to greet life with open arms, to leave no rock unturned.

6 comments:

Rach said...

what exquisite joy!

elizabeth said...

beautiful; thank you for sharing with us...

tamie marie said...

I gave you the blog post award of the day, over on my blog. This post rocked!

cohensrus said...

thats wonderful kelley! I'm working on the order to my day bit. you'd think it would come naturally for born organized me.... we are getting more rhythm to our weeks now with outside storytimes and bible studies but as an ex-preschool teacher I keep thinking I should be doing more with them... especially when tiki is napping and I have selah alone. of course, that usually is my workout and shower time! ah...

rebecca said...

I got to your post via tamie's blog. And how happy that I did! You get the Mother of Year Award from me. Your child will never forget and isn't that what it's all about, anyway? To create memories they will never forget? What better testament to your parenting.

Anonymous said...

Ah, you are in the midst of learning some of the same lessons I have been wading through =).