Yesterday was a crazy, busy day. I didn't quite plan it that way, it just turned out that way. The only things I had planned were a play date with some friends and my piano lessons at the end of the day. Instead, we did that and had a water play date with some neighbor friends, went to the zoo, read stories for over about an hour, and went to a couple of stores. I know it doesn't sound like much, but when I am hauling three kids around who are not usually very cooperative doing any two things is a ton of work.
Yesterday, I had cooperative kids (for the most part) which was a small miracle in and of itself. We experienced a variety of other miracles as well. First thing in the morning, we had snuggles and read stories without disagreements over which stories to read and who gets to sit where. The baby did not scream and cry all day when I was not holding him. We made it out the door in time to make it to the zoo just before admissions closed and we ate dinner at the zoo and were able to play peacefully for about an hour. We did not experience any major meltdowns in the stores we went to, or anywhere else for that matter. I was able to remember everything I needed at the stores we went to, and not remember one last thing as I am walking out the door after checking out. The children cooperated getting in and out of the car almost every time we needed to. All three children cooperated to get bathed all within one hour, which almost never happens. A ton of little miracles after several extremely rough days. (One day the baby cried for an accumulated 10 hours because he is suffering extreme separation anxiety.)
The biggest miracle I experienced yesterday came in a passing comment from a stranger at Costco. I was there just before lunchtime and my kids were darting across aisles to look at things and not paying much attention to me because they were hungry and tired. Some of the other customers were getting frustrated at my absent-mindedness in trying to take care of my busy children and their being in the way of traffic flows. I tried to keep reminding my children to watch out for others and stay out of the the other customers way. At the very end of our shopping excursion I made the "stay out of the way" comment when the children were blocking one more person from going down the aisle and the gentleman turned to me, smiled, and said, "Children are never in my way." With three busy and intelligent children, I usually get very much the opposite response from strangers. His little kindness made a huge difference in my shopping experience yesterday and helped give me a little more patience with my children.
You're probably wondering what any of this has to do with the picture at the top. When Michael and I went on a hike in the desert about a month ago everything was drab and dry. Near the end of our hike we came across this bright yellow flower which reminded me small miracles can happen even in the face of much opposition or the unlikeliness of flourishing. This little yellow flower was much like yesterday because it was a bright day in the midst of much adversity.
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