Reasons to Really TRULY Absolutely Adore Monday!

Lest I come across as one of the ungrateful employed... let me say that I LOVE my job! I love my clients, I love my beautiful office and my comfy mack-daddy chair. I love being gainfully employed... and the reason I love being gainfully employed is so that I can enjoy my time when I'm not busy gaining. I'm jus' sayin'...

The windows are open and I have rehung the curtains in my bedroom and this time I have DARED Trouble the cat formerly known as Lex-i-lishus to mess with them. He has whined as if to say, "but tearing down curtains is what I LIVE for, mommy"... and I have replied, "If you tear them down again I will feed you to the bears"

Austin swears he had a bear encounter last night... a rustling of the leaves... a low growl... I think it could have been any manner of wildlife as we are in the wild, wild woods...

And this morning I'm so glad we're in the wild, wild woods as the wind is gently blowing throw the open windows and the rain is ever so gently falling outside... it smells fresh and clean and so incredibly cool... not that claustrophobic air conditioning cool... the kind of cool that only God could create... and I am loving the fact that I get to stay in my cozy nest and enjoy these treats to the senses all. day. long.

I love Monday.

This Monday, especially.

I have already accomplished one project that I had been avoiding ... i sorted through the last two boxes of clothing and reboxed or found a home for this wardrobe according to size. I have discovered a box of missing socks and have found them a home.

I have sealed up two boxes of our family archives that Cody, Marquee, Austin and myself dug through yesterday... and what an awesome time we had, laughing about Cody's Mother's Day cards... appreciating Ryan's first journaling efforts where he expounds on his love for dinosaurs, dinosaurs, dinosaurs...

These boxes are ready for Austin to put away in the deep recesses of my closet until such time as we move again or clean out the closet or have a need to reminisce. I had planned for Cody to take his treasures... but he decided to leave them here... in mom's museum... and I'm glad, in a way... as my kids grow up and move away it's those precious treasures from their childhood that remind me of the incredible blessing it was for me to be their mommy. I didn't think I wanted to be a boy mommy... and now, at the wiser end of the journey, I can see that God created me and uniquely gifted me precisely to be a boy mommy.

It was fun to rediscover those treasures with Marquee... for her to understand more about the man she married and what a kind, sweet, gentle soul he was as a child... and continues to be as a man.

I'm telling you... when it comes to those kids... despite occasional evidence to the contrary, I've done good. I'm proud of who they are and the village I assembled - God assembled - to assist in their rearing.

I'll drag those archival boxes out again for the next daughter that joins our clan, whether it's Sara (with no H) or Charity or whomever. Margie Nelson from Valley Hill Baptist once said to me that "mothers of little boys get their daughters when their sons get married"... and I see now what a great blessing that is! Having Marquee try on Cody's batting glove from his six year old tball year - it fits her tiny hand perfectly - it would have been hard to picture that scene, all those years ago when Cody was a wee boy with a nearly perfect .900 batting average... hard to picture his bride slipping that very glove on her grown hand and holding it up for us to marvel at the fact that her hand is the same size HIS hand was 15 years ago... but those are definitely the moments as a mom that make my heart warm in a way that only a mom can understand.

I used to grieve a little at every age that would pass for my boys... until I realized that I never really lost that tiny little sweet precious six year old Cody with a nearly perfect batting average... I still have him... and on top of that, I have this big, strong, amazing 21 year old Cody who is a hard worker and a faithful husband... who loves his wife with a love that I know he learned from the unconditional love he received as a child... I get six year old Cody and 21 year old Cody and every year that has passed in between. I get to treasure them all... sometimes from up close, others from far away but they are all mine in a special way that no one else could know.

And times like yesterday... when my boys are gathered together and they laugh together and remember together... I feel like my heart could almost burst. How blessed I am to be their mother! How blessed I am to have a daughter now... and granddogs and friends of my kids who become like my own.

You see people whose lives end up very lonely and bitter... but I just feel like my life keeps growing... and I get to add layer upon layer of people from the past with people from the present and each impacts my life in a beautiful way.

Yes. I am really, truly, absolutely adoring this Monday for so many reasons...