November 6, 2013

the important stuff

Sometimes it feels like the stuff I share here is just surface level, and I'm trying to get deeper - to the heart of what our family is about, what makes us "tick." I was thinking about why this is so hard - why it's difficult to formulate posts about what makes our family what it is and this past week I realized that a lot of those things aren't quantifiable. These moments aren't really something that can be captured in words or blog posts but maybe I shall try.






Of course at the heart of our family is our faith. It drives us in so many ways. I can already see the kids taking their faith and creating a worldview of daily and spontaneous prayer, service to others, formulating thoughts about life, death, goodness, and sin, getting sad when we can't make it do daily Mass (Levi mostly because he wants to make trouble there), and simply spending time with Our Lord quietly in their hearts. It's so beautiful.





Then there are those moments that aren't so easy to express: the times before bed where I snuggle with Levi and he runs his hands through my hair and says "happy happy happy" over and over. The times where Max says something completely random but yet so sweet and beautiful that I just stop to hug him  and tell him how special he really is. Or when Avila is formulating thoughts about morality and life - thoughts from a simple little person yet full of faith and deep theology that can only come from a saint or a child.






These things in the quiet (not always quiet), in the mundane, in the everyday happenings of routine and life is where a family is built. Sure the big stuff is fun and memory-making, but it's in these little things, these little moments, that my heart and their hearts become at peace. Perhaps this is a big reason why I love homeschooling so much. Yeah, it's sucks sometimes (but actually not really) however I get to have these moments all throughout the day. It's like they are the glue to our existence - the simple things we share - and they bond us through the craziness coming from everywhere else. (PS: upon editing I shall never use the words things again. It's just that it's early in the morning and I've only had one cup of coffee and I need to get off the computer so I'm not going to change it.)

Today I will stop and choose to recognize (or create opportunities) for these beautiful moments to happen. I finally have the laundry under control so now I maybe have time to do that.



And, for the record, this is how Levi likes to spend his little moments: driving cars up and down my arms.















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