Thursday, July 26, 2007

Ho Hum and Ordinary Days, are they something of the past only?


Almost 39 years ago, cough cough, I was born to two great people. My mother and father. My parents had just gotten married and were very young when out I popped 9 months later. Mom stayed home to raise me and my sister, and dad who had just finished school, when out and started his career. We had a simple life. I saw my grandparents regularly, spoiled I was being the very first grandchild. We didn't eat out, that was a luxury we couldn't afford, but once every other month or so mom and dad would splurge and get McDonalds or Kentucy Fried Chicken. Tractor rides around my parents or grandparents property was something we looked forward to. Watching peas grow out of the ground and picking them and eating them in the early summer months, waiting each spring for the sweet peas to grow...the simple life. My sister and I didn't have a large closet of clothing to choose from. In fact mom sewed most of the dresses I wore. I insisted on wearing dresses until around 3rd grade. I was a twirler :). My sister and I would hide and make forts in the trees, we would make mud pies out of just about anything. Life was simple, ho hum and ordinary. Nothing much to get excited about, even moments and days of boredom. I miss that! I wish for the ordinary for my children.

The other day a woman at work came up to me. .. "Jenice" I just wanted to say, how impressed I am at how you handle your life....you seem to have it all together, being a single mom and taking care of the kids. Your kids are great, you don't have the usual problems and you seem to have it all together." I smiled and said "its all a facade!" I laughed and said thank you, but while it may look like I have it all together on the outside, I just give thanks each day to the Lord for giving me the strength and each evening you can pretty much bet I fall apart about something. In all honesty, my children and I are doing pretty good. We've finally felt the start of summer kick in, playing around the house, my son's xbox came back from being repaired, we played WII, hit the beach a few times and had a few lazy days of summer. Not so ordinary, ho hum though. I have a teenage daughter who isn't having attitudes (currently), a teenage son who seems happy, and two girls who love or hate each other on any given day. A simple life, but not so simple. We live in such a techy world today. Two of my children now have earned their own laptops. Four computers, a xbox360, a Nintendo Wii and countless other electronic gadgets to entertain. Life comes to a hault when the internet crashes in my home! But there are those moments!

Sitting at the beach is probably one of the closest ways to feel ho mum and ordinary for me today. I can get the kids away and out of the house away from the 'virtual world' and feel the real world. Playing on a quad or the jeep in the dirt is another way. I just wish for more of the simple in my life....how about you?