Daily Life

My life is boring.  I can usually tell you what any given day will involve.  I'll get up and work out (well, most days anyway. . .), eat two pieces of toast for breakfast, have a turkey sandwich and a bag of Sunchips for lunch (but I won't complain too much because I have a husband who packs it every morning for me. . . ) and head home from work.  Our evenings are dinner, baths, books, prayers, and bed.  Followed by me collapsing on the couch exhausted.  Some nights, it's the first chance I've had to sit down.  If I'm lucky, we get the dishwasher loaded or some laundry washed.  And that's my life.  Some days, the routine is mind-numbing.  The clothes are laid out, the bags are packed by the back door. . . we're ready to do it all again the next morning.  Sigh.

But then sometimes, a typical, boring day soon becomes something else.  You have a teacher come into your classroom and tell you that a plane just hit the World Trade Center.  You turn on the TV and watch with a room of eighth graders as another plane hits the second tower.  Or you get a phone call that you could never prepare for, a phone call that the person on the other end never dreamed they'd have to make.  We had a situation last week that I never thought I'd have to face as a mama.  And for a moment, it rocked our little world and I longed for my plain, old boring life.  I wanted everything to be right.  I needed the comfort of our "mind-numbing" routine: stickers for peeing on the potty (yes, I started another chart), Curious George during breakfast, and a certain little person repeatedly stealing food out of my refrigerator.  (Please don't expect an apple or tortilla from our house without teeth marks.)

All is well now--I hope and pray.  And like many other things I've faced in life, I have to remind myself that God can see something down the road that we can't.  He has a plan for our life, and a reason for the pain and sorrow we experience.  It doesn't make it better, but it's easier to face the next day knowing that He's not only with us, but He knows best.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have dinner to heat up, a dishwasher to empty, kids to feed and bathe, clothes to lay out, and another day to face.  And I'm so grateful for every boring, mind-numbing moment.  Maybe instead, my life is blessed.