Looking For The Little Things

Yesterday was the perfect day for a hike...the sky was blue and the air was warm and the birds were singing.

But nope.  No hike.  Just me, my shoe box of receipts from the past year and my looming tax appointment were all that the DR ordered for the whole lovely day.

The good news?  It's finished.  The bad news?  Ouch to the pocketbook.

Oh well.

Today is a brand new day.  I'm so swamped at work...the kind of swamped where I look at my to do list and know that there is no way it can all be done.  I'm the one who figures out the solutions to problems and sometimes my brain just needs a rest...so today I am going to take a good, old fashioned lunch hour.

At least that's the plan for now.

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Lent began yesterday and I had all these grand plans of how my Ash Wednesday would be spent.  Praying at the beach.  A service in my favorite little church.  A time to make a quiet list of things I had hoped to accomplish this Lenten season.

None of that happened.  

I worked.  I dumped a LARGE lemonade in my work car.  I walked a stubborn dog who is afraid of open spaces.  I worked on taxes.  I dealt with a very difficult person at work.  

I felt sorry for myself.

And then we went to church last night.  I didn't want to be there.  The laundry really needed to be folded, the dishes on the counter needed to be cleaned,  the taxes needed to be finished.

But I went...more out of a'the boys need to be here and I need to set an example' than out of a 'I am here because I NEED to be here'.

Does that make sense?

In the end, as always happens, I was fed.  It's not always the obvious things either.  Tonight it was a very grumpy 15 year old, who's schedule is giving him a run for his money, and an older brother.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw that older brothers arm go around the shoulders of his younger brother, encouraging him to sit up a little straighter.  It was a quiet movement...not the typical slap, push, pull that seems to be the norm in my houseful of boys.

And I was once again showed that God's answers to prayers aren't always dynamite blowing up, but are simply noticed out of the corner of your eye.  

So here's to another day.  A new beginning.  A new day to mop and vacuum and clean the kitchen.  A new day to cook for my family.  A new day to serve.  A new day to look for the little things.

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