I was up early this morning so I went out in the garden to savor those few moments of stillness in my day before all the kids woke up. I wasn't out there but a few minutes before Ella trudged out beside me in her rain boots and nightgown. I don't mind though, I know it's just a brief time that I will have the 4 year old version of Ella. She's always my early riser.
"Good mornin', Mama."
"Good morning, sweet pea."
I read a little more then heard what I would hear again about a thousand times before the day was over, "Mama... Mama."
"The flowers are talking to me."
I watched her walk around humming and looking at all the flowers and having pretend conversations with the snapdragons. She loves to see what's blooming everyday, to learn their names and help me prune the dead blooms. But she loves the snapdragons the most. I did too at her age when my dad would pinch the sides of the soft petals and make them talk to me in funny little voices. After a little time in the garden she moved to her other favorite thing, drawing and coloring. I recently pulled out this special coloring book because she is getting so big and she loves it. She has even requested that we call her Mallow after the Mallow flower fairy.
The name Ella means light or light of God and with each day I spend with her I see more deeply how very true to her name she is.
I finally sat down tonight after a long day of mopping floors, homeschooling, disciplining toddler tantrums,grocery shopping, making food, cleaning up food, ect. But honestly as I knelt to pray with my family all I felt was how much I love every bit of it. Because it is real and it is life and it is where God has put me and everything I do in a day speaks to the immense blessings he has given me. I picked up this book tonight and read this portion which is pretty much exactly how I feel.
"There's normal life, kind of day-to-day, make breakfast, do-the-dishes kind of life, but just underneath that, like a throb of bass you feel in your chest, I feel a whole other thing going on. In the midst of taxes and email, there is something sacred, something special dipping and weaving within that same old thing, like a firefly, like a great song, and it reminds you that the dishes and the taxes are real, but so much more is real too. The sacred mixes in with the daily when you have a conversation with someone you love, when you read a great book, or when you do something courageous. It's still just a normal day, but there's something bigger, something more compelling going on."
~Shauna Niequist~
