Come to our Table: Brookeside: disappointment

I pledged to start taking some breaks...yeah, simple no brainer right. There's a reason God commands us to rest. For some people that's easy. For Type A's...not so much! What seems easier than the discipline required to institute rest is to constantly tackle the piles accumulating: piles of emails, texts, biz inquiries, vendors to get back with, doc appnts, client meetings, sports schedules, car repairs, etc. ad nauseum. Good becomes the enemy of the best. Then we are stressed out and asking God to relieve our stress....Hum, wonder if He's thinking, 'yeah, I told you you would need rest and commanded you to do so. Did you think I made you to go non-stop and was joking about that day of rest? It's simple, be still, and know that I am God.'

Turning off the constant pings of distraction, for just a little portion of each week, to be able to focus, undivided, on the moments of memories that need to be made---this is my goal! The twins just celebrated their 9th birthday---yikes! I peeked in on Wyatt the other day and saw him looking at a photo album in his room. I sidled up next to him and we talked about the memories in his book. It was hilarious and touching to see what he remembered, the things that had made the biggest impact on him. They weren't the grander things that you might expect...they were pretty simple.

While we looked I was struck by the fact that for the first time ever in my life I was not immediately able to tell the twins apart in every photo from their baby/toddler years. Yes, time is passing and memories fade, but that was a bit alarming to me. It tells me how fast time is going and if I'm not careful I'll blink and it'll be passed in piles that were managed while real life that He came to reveal is missed.

(who us? we didn't do it!)

I played a game of Whack a Mole with the twins (Tad was on a trip with Chris). I told them I wanted to take their picture quickly when we were done the game. The picture quickly turned into wrestling, as it always does, but what they also started the same head nuzzling they've been doing since they were babies...I had just seen this in photographs I looked at with Wyatt and here they were still doing it almost 9 years later!

This struck me because I had just had a session with a client with all adult children days earlier. At one point the only girl in the family started nuzzling her brother in a way that so reminded me of what my boys do....I realized I might still be taking this same picture 15 years from now!! Cool!!

(blue dragon flies who must be best friends!)

So, I decided to take the boys to Brookeside Gardens. Unlikely place to take little boys, I know. However, my boys are all about the outdoors and exploring. Wyatt Pete especially is like a little Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter. He comes running to me with butterflies, bees, baby bunnies, lizards and baby birds all the time. He loves the net his Mimi made him when he's not catching wild life with his hands.

(look in the 4:00 position---see the turtle approaching his net while he waits patiently!)

I'd heard that Brookeside Gardens is a place where there are gorgeous gardens (which I knew the boys wouldn't care about) but also the place was full of butterflies which would land right on you! The boys would love this! So we ventured out!

About 2/3rds into the hour trip I started seeing lots of downed trees and traffic lights out. The high heat (been 100 degrees lately) had caused some bad storms two days earlier. Uh oh, this wasn't looking good!

(2nd turtle of the day! Sorry little fella, I apologize ahead of time for the gentle mauling you are about to receive. I promise you they mean you no harm and they come in peace!)

We continued on and decided to make an adventure out of it and hope for the best. We entered one area to find yellow caution tape and cones blocking off the road in to the gardens. :( We stopped a runner who told us how we could get into the park--yay!!

We drove right in (no sneaking in required--yay!!) Power was out which meant no visitor center, no problem, we were going to find the magical place where butterflies would land right on us. After exploring for about 1/2 hour we learned from other visitors those butterflies are housed in a conservatory which was closed b/c of the power/heat. hum....would i have 3 boys melt down over disappointment or could we use this?

A wonderful mother told us about a pond with a gazebo where they go to try and catch frogs and turtles. We were so on it! While we walked we talked about the true measure of a person's maturity is how they handle disappointment in life. We can be complaining grumblers who tantrum when life hands us lemons or we can do what God calls us to: "in all things find gratefulness."

It was time to make some lemonade from our lemons!

I knew I had to set the tone by speaking the blessing we were in and I found the boys follow suit. One of those really proud momma moments. The boys ran around yelling, "Momma come get a picture of the turtles in the water...the dragonflies...Momma there's a blue tree--did you ever see such a thing?"

(not long before we were leaving we found the closed butterfly conservatory---we could see hundreds of them all from the outside!!! Yes, Wyatt longed to hold this little guy, but I think the lil guy is happy the glass is there keeping us out!)

It didn't take long at the pond before Wyatt decided he NEEDED to go into the pond to catch a fish or turtle with his net. Cut to him going in in his boxers (aka shorts left over from his toddler years that will stay up on his skinny butt@).

He was grinning and in his glory, patiently waiting for the fish and turtles to come to him.

I told him we were going to leave his boxers there, rather than carry them full of stinky pond water back with us. We were all dripping sweat and I couldn't bring myself to bring those back, sorry mother earth!

I laughed when I noticed the boxers/shorts were size 3T, still fitting Wyatt's little waist!!!

I felt God's little whisper, 'Jennifer, remember how much time you wasted worrying about your boys who, no matter how much they ate, refused to gain weight at the 'normal' rate? Are they lacking or are they living the life you dreamed of for your children?'

I could hear that little voice because I was stopped just watching the boys play and soaking in the blessing of God. Many voices/pings will crowd Him out....not today!

When I told Wyatt we were leaving his boxers he said, "ok Momma, maybe when I'm a dad I'll come here with my kids some day and we'll see my boxers and I'll tell them about how I got into the pond and caught a turtle here."