Challenge and Change

I was sitting with my kids at the swing set reflecting upon the day. Today, homework did not take two and half hours to do. My son got to it right away. Actually, after meeting quickly with a teacher, I came home to both kids bent over their homework. The house was semi-clean and I felt semi-on-top-of-it. I thought, "how would I feel if it were like this every day? Imagine the glory, peace and organization my life would be!" I closed my eyes and smiled at the image. Suddenly, my rational self knocked on the dream. You wouldn't know that it was wonderful if that is all you knew. How would I know how miserable homework, mud, yelling, begging to concentrate, get up, pack your lunch, get your uniform/leotard, clean your room, empty the dishwasher, stop yelling, start sharing, that is a warning, sit down could be? I was delighting in the day because of the very opposite nature of most of my daily pursuits. I love and enjoy my active children. Yet, in my perfect world I always imagined floor to ceiling matching containers (from Ikea of course) organizing everything I own. I would go about giving encouragement/teaching and enjoying their company. If this were my staple there would be no cognizance of how blessedly wonderful it is to see a child doing homework and doing what they are told. For example, at this moment at 10 pm. All of my children are awake and I've read them the riot act. My second child is sleeping on a blanket right at my feet. Clearly, I do enjoy the good moments they seem rare. As these a-has floated around, I was glorying in the delight of early fall. Here it can still hit 80 in midday. Yet it cools off in the mornings and evenings. As I thought about that, I'm sure I have written about the rapture about fall. The real beauty hit me. It is the beauty of change and challenge. Truly, after having all of my children blow me off tonight and letting a "what the hell?" fly from lips , I glory less in it. But, it is the truth of it all. Life is change with challenge. Can I celebrate that? Most simply can I provide myself five minutes to sit back to be more gracious and aware of the process? That is the next place for pondering.