MomCon Take Two

Tomorrow I will get up (not at all bright) and early and fly away to MomCon. Last year I pretty much went kicking and screaming. I did not want to go. You can read about it here. 

http://momtojman.blogspot.com/2014/10/summer-of-1991.html 

 I  almost completely backed out. I knew I should go and that it would be good for me but there was more anxiety than I have ever felt. Ever. Guess what? I survived. The boys survived. I had a good time. 

Tomorrow I do this again. And this time I'm excited.

Here's why:

1. I get to spend time Johnelle, lots of it. Just me and her, no distractions. When I became a mom I received more blessings than just my boys. I made mom friends. Ladies I never would have met if I hadn't been a mom. And she is one of them. She's my partner in this coordinator gig, a fellow boymom and a  wonderful   person. She is a part of my tribe. Sadly the other part of our tribe can't come. She has become a very important person in my life. Although we've only known each other a couple years, I can trust her and confide in her more than people I've known much longer. This weekend we will laugh, share, watch lifetime movies and drink wine. It will be wonderful. 

2. Mops. I love mops! This will be a great time to learn more about it, how to be a better coordinator, how to be more involved, how to share more about this amazing ministry to other moms. I will get to celebrate and rest with 3000 moms who all feel the same way! 

3.  A better mom- I came out of this last year a better mom. Tips and tricks to handle these kids. A better person more focused on God, so I can be the best mom for my kids. I came home feeling loved and worthy by the One who created me and ready to love those blessings that He gave me even more.

4. Lisa Jo Baker. Jen Hatmaker.  JJ Heller. Matthew West. Lisa Jo! (Oh I said that?) 

5. Rest- physical, emotional and spiritual. All kinds of rest. 

Reasons I don't look forward to it. 

4 days without my heart. 4 days. I'm not one to seek lots of me time. I'm not One who likes a long break. So that is hard. I will miss my wild things. And very much look forward to the full body slam hugs I will get when I get home. I did stock them up on milk and hotdogs, they should be fine. 

Flying. I hate flying!! I hate small spaces  I hate lots of people. I hate that my ears don't pop. I hate flying. So here's praying I survive it and don't drive Johnelle crazy with my silly flying quirks! 

Off to Indiana and hope to bring my pup home a souvenir with his name "Indiana". Maybe even some socks (right mom?) 

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Be still

Kids know a secret that adults don't, well actually we just forget it over time. We allow the world and distractions to take over and we forget. 

The secret is to be still. To take your time. There is absolutely no rush than what you are doing. To observe. To explore. To be. 

We've been living outside! I know it's only about ten degrees cooler but it's cooler. And we have missed outside. It's been a long three months couped up inside. Fall is my absolute favorite season and winter. Spring is eh. Summer is torture. You will find us outside from now until May. 

I've been watching as Jman has been changing lately.  His imagination is exploding and I just watch and listen to the stories and worlds he is creating. I join in, when invited. Today I gave them hose and a shovel and watched them come up with whatever. There were rivers made, a party was thrown and we had to get everything ready for our guests, puddle jumping, mud pies made and so on. As all kids do they can move 90 miles an hour or suddenly be completely slow in their actions. 

As RC was throwing mud on me and attack hugging me I saw Jman grab the smallest of lids, use it as a scoop to fill up a cup, to transfer to a large barrell and repeat. I watched him over and over. Take his time, work slowly, not letting anything distract him. We had large shovels out, buckets of all kinds of things that could have made this easier. Yet he chose the smallest of lids, sat, dug, scooped as carefully and as long as it took him. He had no problem going slow, not rushing, just being and focusing on one thing. Concentration. 

As an adult it would be easy to jump in and distract him. Saying here use this, it's bigger, it will be faster, or why don't you do this instead, or even as dreadful as why are you doing this? What's the point? All of these silly questions are adult questions.  We don't need to know why. Maybe there's a reason maybe not. I've learned from my boys, usually it's not about what or why, it's really just to see if I can, to see what would happen, and honestly boys don't think about why first, they think why later.  For J it was about the process not the product. Maybe it was to see if he could fill up the big bucket. Who knows. I was not going to disrupt this and ask. But his reason is valid and important. He didn't need me to rush him, like we like to do with our kids.  Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. They don't need us to push our distractions on them. Or our time table. What we should do is slow down and join them. Because they   know a secret that time is precious. Distractions are silly. They take away the beauty right in front of us. For me in that moment it was watching my beautiful son. For him that beauty was a beautiful pile of mud. Big squishy mud that he had created. 

We spend so much time distracted and rushing we are missing so much. It's just like with God, we are rushing that we are missing the beauty, we are missing Him.  "Be still and know that I am God". How often do you forget that when you are rushing or distracted? For me it's constantly. He wants us to slow down, to focus on him. Children know this secret. They don't need to be reminded. They know it and appreciate it and they are one of the ways God reminds us to be still. Stop today. Truly stop and enjoy the blessing of being still. If you need help ask your child how. We think they are missing out if they don't hurry and go here or there but really we are the ones missing out. 

Stop. Listen. Observe. Explore.

   And if you're lucky you get mud thrown in your face. 😊

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