Type A Bee

Do you aspire to be like a frantic little bee, sucking the best things out of life without disturbing the beauty?  A bee is such a do-gooder. 

My ten-year-old son took this picture. I just thought you should know that. 

She steps daintily through the stamens and pistils, seeking the nectar needed for honey making.  Almost as an after-thought, she provides pollination service to the flowers she visits.

Like reading Proverbs 31, watching bees makes me feel guilty about my own laziness.  I think I'm more of a slug type.


For the record, I'd like to point out that bees are also known to deliver a pretty nasty sting to others that get in their way or annoy them.  It is probably because they're so focused on their busy-ness.  I admit, when I'm over-achieving, I get a little mean.  What violence do slugs deliver? Slime?  Ooze?

So I'm not going to feel guilty about my laziness.  We are enjoying the last week of half-day school and by the time lunch rolls around, I feel as though I've used up the next to last ounce of energy I possess. {I bet bees don't even stop for lunch or afternoon coffee.} I feel confident that we're doing a decent job of covering the most basic of elementary subjects: reading, writing and arithmetic.  During the afternoons, we've sprinkled a few important extra-curriculars in: piano lessons, Sauder Village, cookie baking and the like.  {Today I taught my daughter how to steam open a sealed envelope, a life lesson whose importance might very well be questioned in this age of electronic mail, instant messages and the senseless abbreviations we call "texts."}  After labor day we plan to commence our six hour school days. I hope to find myself infused with a bit more get-up-and-go.  But can I become both bee-like and sting-less?  Or is a slug always a slug?

Here. Let this short little snippet of song cheer you up. This is a lip sync video the Man of the House and his children entered into a local radio station's contest.

I know, right? They're just so cute.  I live with this cuteness every day.  If I were a bee type I probably wouldn't notice the cuteness.

Goal Setting for the Y&C Mother

There are some projects - big and small - in the works around this house that are prompting me to reach beyond my Natural Organizational Skills. 
I hope you understand that word "Natural" means "Minimal."  I shouldn't have to explain this one to you folks; I am a mother of five children, still desperately clinging to the words "young" and "creative," (if even only mildly "young" and "creative.")  As demonstrated by my children, a young person is not excessively responsible or organized.  In the same way, common practice demands that creative types are not expected to be tidy or organized.
Even though I don't have to explain, because all my readers (shout out to my Mom & Dad!) are very smart people, I will sum up this equation for you:

Let us keep in mind, (no matter how clever my current obsession with colorful signage) I am only mildly young & creative.  There are days that I distinctly feel the youth and creativity seeping out of me, leaving my aging and unimaginative nerves irritated by the Messy Normal.  Even on the days that I am full to nearly bursting with energetic innovation, I struggle to stay atop the muddle.  It seems that these Projects of Various Sizes (PVS) are pushing my surroundings to Abnormal Messy.  So, I'm trying to become more organized than my {mildly young and creative} natural self. 

I've decided to start small on this neatness effort.  Let's say about the size of a dining room table instead of a whole dining room.

The dining room table at our house, center of household foot traffic, favorite spot for homework-folding laundry-paying bills-coloring-and-stashing-debris, is always often buried under a pile of things not related to dining.  My first {small} step in reaching beyond my Natural Organizational Skills?  Setting the table.  Or rather, setting the goal that each night, before I go to bed, the dining room table will be empty of everything except the tired looking winter centerpiece.  I made this goal on Saturday night, and immediately decided to postpone implementation until the following night.  Sunday nights I am usually trying to make up for all the laziness relaxation I didn't get to enjoy throughout the previous hours of the weekend.  Yes, on the first day of my first small step, I failed. 

I guess I was feeling more Young and Creative (and thus not responsible, tidy, or organized) that night.

Since then, I've met my goal.

Yup.  One whole night I went to bed with a clean table, even though Monday was pretty full of Y&C Motherhood. (Look for more on that, later.)

The rest of my house will eventually catch up.

Probably when the children are grown or I am full-time Old and Boring. 

Snowy Ramblings...

Snow day! Baking, craft projects, card games, books... how long before they're begging for movies and computer games? I love these relaxed days at home with no schedule to keep.

Ok, I guess I have a few chores to do too, but I am not going to let them (or the bored children's bickering) steal my pleasure in the cozy house, beautiful snowy landscape and all the wonderful ways I see God at work around me.

Hmmm... maybe we need to bundle up and work a freezing family hike around the back yard into our no schedule day.