Broken and Blessed

Today wasn't such a productive day. Well, I did really clean part of the kitchen counter and the bottom drawer of the stove. The girls and I (mostly I) made a goal yesterday that we each take one thing each day - a drawer, cupboard, countertop, etc - and spend 15 minutes cleaning it. Of course, I urged them to do MORE, but that was a minimum. So I kept my part of the deal today and felt pretty good about it. I also washed a load of towels -- tell me how 4 people can use 14 washcloths in one bathroom . . . I just don't get it. The Queen (aka ME) told everyone that used the upstairs bathroom that they could not get out a new washcloth until they put their previous one in the dirty clothes. Silly, but true.

Anyway, back to my title. When we were making cupcakes yesterday I was looking at the messy table and took these pictures

I was kind of liking the messy balance the tools of cooking were making on my previously clean table. Why the knife and measuring spoon are in the empty cream cheese box I have no idea.

I've been reading lots of mommy blogs and relate to the mommies who are happy to be home with their children, yet feel somehow broken, at certain moments anyway. Maybe broken isn't the right term, but kind of melancholy. We have such big dreams and plans for the things we'll do with our little ones and we have such expectatations -- for how they and we will experience these wonderful things. And they don't always turn out like it looked in our mind. It reminded me of a Lenten retreat I went to a number of years ago that focused on embracing our brokenness. Accepting that being broken is a part of us. I've thought lots about that when things don't turn out just as I wish they would, for myself, for those I love, for the world. So among my days of getting or not getting done what I have planned, I'm trying to celebrate and embrace both the broken and the blessed moments. I wish that for you too.