A Rose for the Day

Sundays are usually not super restful for me.... yesterday was unusual and restful. All these years Sunday has always meant getting the kids ready for church and driving the 35 minutes. I've never experienced what it would be like to go to church with my husband. He always has to be there so early. Some Sunday mornings are calm and some are messy trying to get everyone to wake up and move after having a Saturday to sleep in.  My oldest daughter sat with me during church and that was a treat. I had lots of memories during that service.  She will be fifteen this week. She was born on a Monday. Martin Luther King day that year. Today is MLK day...so I let all the memories wash over me of that Sunday before she arrived.  All the hours of sitting with my dog and letting him comfort me while my husband was at a youth group church event late in the night... My daughter reached out and held my hand while we were singing songs. It's always so nice when your older children want to ...

 So many little roses happened this week. I never got a chance to have a few minutes of calm to jot them down.  Here is a few that stood out as little bright moments in a cold January week... Monday morning I had a first grade teacher tell me a student had something for me. She handed me a piece of red construction paper with last weeks art lesson sketched across the paper in Green Crayola Marker. The little artist who recreated our lesson stood beaming at me with her dark eyes dancing.  "Thank you so much," I said to her. "You remembered how to do it." She nodded. Moments like these are special for me. The little girl had done a simple sketch from our last Thursday lesson on Monet's Japanese Foot Bridge at Giverny.  She had sketched out a bridge and accompanying lily pads and water lilies.  I had a few of these little roses this week where students seemed to really connect with the lessons we were doing. You hope that you are making the connections, impressions...

 Yesterday it was the first day of 2023. It was my kind of January day. 66 the car thermometer read.  Christmas weekend was take your breath away cold.  Wind chills had it feeling like single digits and many people lost power.  This spring like first day of January was perfect.  The sky seemed bright contrasted with the foggy, gloomy day that marked the last day of 2022. I could think of several roses from this day, but the one I'll pick is Rachelle. Rachelle is a sweet girl we have had the pleasure of knowing since she was 12.  She was a middle schooler in our pervious youth group and we watched her grow up and graduate high school. After we switched churches we kept the friendship. Texts, restaurant visits, birthday parties, Christmas and Thanksgiving reunions.  She and my daughter are 12 years a part and she and I are 11 years apart. So in a way she seems like a middle sister.  She spent countless hours after Wednesday night church playing with...

 I was playing my happy play list as I banged pots and pans around the kitchen last night.  Sometimes I'm a podcast girl. From life hacks to relationship advice to art teacher tips, but sometimes I just want to revisit the past and get lost in oldies music while I dice and sauté and make something satisfying while destroying my kitchen in the process.  I had played several songs that had me lost in the moment, and all of the sudden my son rushed in for one particular oldie. It was something Motown. I think it was Sugar, Sugar.  As soon as the music started he came in looking seven and serious and offered me his hand. It was pure joy. It was my rose of the day for sure.  I remember trying to squeeze out all of the beauty of those moments where my son initiated a dance around the kitchen with me.  He is a boy of few words (not short on sound effects though). He didn't say much, but as the song was coming to a close I whispered in his ear, "This was my rose of...