Snow Meditation, What I Know For Sure & #iPPP

The other night I was reading a book to Wade.  It was a book I hadn't read in a while, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  As I read the quiet, simple book I started to feel something.  "Crunch, crunch, crunch, his feet sank into the snow," I read.  It was poetry.  It was meditation.  It was quiet.  It was calm. What I was feeling was my shoulders relax and my mind stop racing.

Wade asked me to read it three times.  I did.  Each time I read it, my voice was quiet and I concentrated on each word carefully.  I think he needed the calm, be-in-the-moment, shoulders relaxing, mind-stop-racing kind of feeling too.

Source

I mean it's been a crazy couple weeks.  Mostly all good, but just nuts.  Jesus had a birthday party at church, breakfast with Santa, concerts, family visiting, crafts, memories to make, trees to cut down, good times to be had, specials to watch, parties to plan, parties to attend, all the regular homework, practices, work, running around here and there and everywhere.

And a lot of us have ended up like this:

Can't get much cuter in my opinion.
And I don't even like animals.

And this:

This was on the way to his big brother's class party.  

Being busy isn't anything new to our family, probably not yours either.  But holiday busy is a whole other kind of busy.  

The other morning I sat on the front porch stalking watching Peyton's middle school bus pull away (I know it's dumb but I feel better watching the bus pull away, that doesn't make me a helicopter type mom does it?), I sat for a few extra minutes.  Snow was falling.  The world was quiet and dark and beautiful.  I could hear the muffled sounds of cartoons and little kid laughter coming from the living room window behind me.  Off in the distance there was a sound like a quiet ocean.  It was really a thousand commuters speeding carefully on the slick roads to work somewhere.  Normally not such a beautiful sound, but in that moment it was sort of magical.  My shoulders relaxed.  My mind stopped racing.  I was calm.

My snowy, dark porch.

Of course, moments later I was racing around like a mad woman getting lunches made for the other kids and finding snow pants and matching gloves and boots and hats and maybe cursing wintertime just a little.  BUT I'll always have my morning meditative moment and that means something.

It's not the first time I have looked to a children's book for meditative inspiration.  Books that I originally thought were sort of boring--as life got busier I rediscovered the meditative powers Good Night Moon too (I wrote about it in a post creatively named "Good Night Moon Doesn't Suck."). 

What I'm trying to say is...calm down, people.  I know it's busy right now, but just breathe, relax your shoulders and maybe pick up a children's book and meditate for a minute, even if there are no children around.  It's good to take a break, especially during this crazy, busy, sort of nuts holiday season, I know that for sure right now.

Here's what else I know for sure (this week):

• My favorite Christmas jam this week has been old school Otis Redding.  The divas are amazing, but dayum, Otis is amazing too.

• Watching your kid go it alone is hard.  Lucy was totally prepared for her holiday piano recital this week, but I was still a little bit of a wreck inside watching her go up on the little stage alone.  It might as well have been Carnegie Hall.  There was a lump in my throat--proud of her and hoping she felt happy.

• I don't mind looking like an ass on YouTube.  This week I sang a Christmas song and linked up with Mama Kat's Vlogging Prompts.  Check it out:

• Meryl Streep is my hero.  I already knew that, but I know it even better this week.  She stars as a crazy, southern, mean, drug-addicted mother in the new movie August: Osage County. Ahem, sound like anyone you know (or have read about here on this blog)?  The more I learned about the character, I was worried it might be a little too close to home.  But after watching Meryl talk about her character on The View this week, I am definitely going to see it.  She said she had a wonderful mother but she chose to do the movie for a friend who didn't have a great mother.  Her friend encouraged her to take the role for all the girls who "clawed their way past those people who told them they were nothing and you'll never be anything." Oh holy shit, Meryl, are you kidding me? I look forward to seeing this movie and as one of those girls, I say thank you.

• It's almost showtime.  The Christmas pageant is happening Christmas Eve and my whole family has roles, except for me.  This year I get to watch Lucy be an angel, Peyton be a wise man and JT, Tim and Wade be Roman soldiers. 

• I can't not laugh at autocorrect fails.  It's impossible.  They are like the new America's Funniest Home Videos, which I also never could not laugh while watching.  I dare you to click on this link and not laugh at least once.

http://littlewhitelion.com/the-best-autocorrects-of-2013-49561/

• What time is it? According to my boys, it's always football time.  Rain or shine or snow, it's football time.  Only have fifteen minutes before you have to go somewhere? No problem, it's football time.  "One more play, mom, just one more play," my boys can be heard saying any time I tell them it's time to stop playing. And I'm not complaining.  I love that they love to play outside.

The little kid in the Santa hat is indeed my youngest, Wade. Smack dab in the middle of the action.

What do you know for sure (this week)?  C'mon, we're friends, share what you know. 

Leave a comment here or on my Facebook page or on Twitter.

Please come play with me on Instagram @jumpingwithmyfingerscrossed. 

I'm linking up today with my friends Greta from  Gfunkified.com and Robin from FarewellStranger.com for the #iPPP link up.  They host a link up where they encourage people to share "your funny, your yummy, your heartfelt, your favorite photos of the week" from our phones.