soaking up the little things

I remember all those days I would stand hopelessly looking into the mirror. I remember watching you get ready and wishing I could do all those things with my hair and face, just like you. I remember the way you would let me pretend with all of your jewelry, clothes and make up. I remember one day I finally had eyebrow hair to pluck, just like you ALWAYS did and just like I ALWAYS watched you do. See, those were some of the little things I remember about you. How beautiful I always thought you were, even when you were sick. How much I wanted to be just like you-even if it meant painfully plucking my eyebrows. Everyday when I pluck them now (yes, everyday, just like you), I get to remember you and all of the meaningful and meaningless conversations we had in your bathroom over your bathroom counter... while you plucked your eyebrows. How silly, right? Who would have thought that something as random as eyesore plucking would make my heart long to have you back? This only makes me think of one thing: how imperative it is that we soak up the little things in life. To take heart in the everyday tasks we often take for granted. 

Clay has taught me the same thing this summer. At the beginning of the summer, the pool liner had a leak in it. This meant that everyday Daddy would turn the hose on and fill the pool back up with water to where it's supposed to be. Somehow, everyday, Clay would find the hose when it was on. His little self would sometimes get out of the pool just to stand on the side and hold the hose. Maybe he thought he was helping the water get into the pool. Or Maybe he loved to watch the hose water splash against the salty chlorine water. Whatever it was, it fascinated him. He loved it- loved the magical feeling he got from something as small as a hose. He may not ever, actually probably won't ever remember holding that hose as it flowed water into the pool, but I will always remember the way that his fascination with it stopped me in my tracks and told my soul to pause and "soak up the little things in life" and for that, I am thankful. 

Here's to hoses and eyebrows that need plucking.... 

Playing in the dirt....

I currently have a lot of summer goals, some of which I will probably never get to.... But I quit blogging during spring semester due to the overwhelming load of school work that was more than enough to handle at the time. So it is my goal to document this summer through the life of sweet Clay. 

I have enjoyed more than anything my time with him already in the (almost) two weeks that I have been home. He LOVES outside. Anything outside. He can be covered in dirt, drenched in sweat and red in the face but you will never hear him say anything about going inside. He is also "all boy" and loves his tractors and trucks. Put the two things (outside and his tractor/truck) together and you have an emmensly tickled toddler. 

So, before he discovered his love for the pool (before I let him in so I wouldn't freeze), we would go outside and play in the dirt with his truck. He is so smart and knows that the tailgate on the truck is made to carry things, so in his mind, it needed to carry dirt. His little hands would dig up the dirt and try so hard to make it to the back of the truck, only to drop almost all of the dirt in the journey there. In the meantime, I would showed him how to scoop the dirt in an old bottle and then he would proceed to try that only to go back to using his hands..

When he finally caught on that his method wouldn't work, he continuously called out for help from me to show him the way of how to make it work with the bottle... 

"Mama, mama... Dirt," he would say. 

I learned two things from Clay that day as I watched him try his hardest to move the dirt... 

1) Perseverance. We are told over and over to never give up, to place our faith and hope in something way bigger than ourselves and then fight the good fight by continuously doing good. Bless his heart, he fought in the smallest way to get that dirt in the back of his truck. 

2) Dependence. In this crazy world, on the midst of trying to do good... things get tough and unmanageable for us. We are promised by God himself that he will never leave or forsake us, that we must just call out His name and He will be there. He longs for us to be dependent on Him as Clay was dependent on me to show him how to transport the dirt from the ground to the truck. 

Can't wait to continue learning from precious Clay Ellis this summer!