calm

pinterest

It's that time of year again: School is right around the corner and everyone is trying to soak up the last official days of summer with vigor and sunscreen.

As I see my teacher friends posting ideas for their classrooms, it still hits hard a little bit that I don't have a classroom of my own to return to in a few weeks. [read about my decision here and here] I absolutely do not regret my decision to be home with Blythe in this season of life, but I do miss teaching. And I know I will until I return. And that is okay.

One of the best things about my decision to be home though is that I'm more flexible with how I get to use my time. It is interesting however, that though I'm obviously still doing a ton during my days here with Blythe, I still feel the need to fill up my time table or at least make it sound like I'm busier than I really am so people don't doubt that I'm still working.

Which is why this quote struck me the other day. "It's okay to be happy with a calm life." It is? That's not what everything and everybody around me tells me. I feel like everyone is supposed to appear busier than they are, which means if they really ARE busy they have to make it sound like they can barely stand on their own two feet because of their exhaustion. And we are supposed to think they are really great because they have so much on their plate.

You know what? I'm calling bull honky. You wanna know why? One of my favorite people this side of heaven is Grandma Pat. She is one of my favorites for a lot of reasons, but one of the major reasons? She never acts like she is busy.

She always has time to have a cup of coffee or share a slice of pie or sing a song to her great grandbabies. And for a woman in her late 80s, I would consider her life fairly busy- she usually has one to two doctor's appointments a week, not to mention all the others that she drives her friends to. She meets with several ladies in town. She never misses church. You get my point? She can fill up her calendar just like the rest of us. But when I call, she answers. She is never too caught up in the middle of something to let it go to voicemail. When we stop by, she sits and actually carries on a conversation, for hours if we want, regardless of what she was in the middle of when we rang the doorbell. I know, I know, I know. She's retired. I get that. But she is happy with a calm life.

This season of my life, of being home with my little, will not last forever. And though I am doing laundry and making meals and wiping a bottom all day, it is, for the most part, calm. And I am putting my foot down and I am going to be dern happy with it.

Join me?