January 2015 – New Life Consulting

It’s official. We’re being named the Parents of The Year. That’s right, school even called to confirm it. On Monday, the 5th of January, we were enjoying a relaxing morning at home, having just returned from our family ski vacation at 2 o’clock in the morning on Sunday, we let the boyz sleep in and were easing back into being home when the phone rang. Daddy-O answered. It was school calling. They asked where the boyz were. Daddy-O said, “They’re here at home with us….” then asked, “Why?” The secretary on the other end of the line explained that school started back that morning and they were missing from their classes and since they hadn’t heard from us they wanted to call to make sure all was OK. Well, it was until now.

That’s right. School was back in session and we had somehow missed the memo that they had changed the school calendar mid-October (due to some teacher’s union change!) and the calendar we were referencing was wrong!

Well, things went from bad to worse as we had to tell the boyz that not only did they not get to hang out in their jammies and play with all their new toys but instead they had to hurry up and get ready for school.

It was like a horrible practical joke! They all started crying! Dirty looks were penetrating my soul! Even I was still in my jammies and I had to scramble to pack lunches and I was completely out of sync. I couldn’t remember if they had any homework or if we needed to turn in library books, who wanted salami and cheese and who wanted peanut butter and jelly? And the choir of cries only crescendoed.

My parting words as we left the house were “Well, this will be one you’ll tell your children!”

Eventually we got things sorted out and we scrambled out the door and over to school. I walked them in and the secretaries explained that there were two other families who did the same thing. It only helped a little – at least there was fair competition in which family was to earn the title of Parent of the Year.

I’m not sure how we’ll ever live that one down!!

I’ve had a gift certificate for a pedicure for a year now. I got it as a Christmas gift last year. I just had to throw it away – unused – because in the past year, never once did I take the time to go and get some pampering. I carried it around in my wallet for the whole year. It was all tattered and torn. And a few times I would think – “Oh, I should go get a pedicure after I go….” to the gym or the grocery or to have lunch with the boys at school or whatever else I put ahead of a little pampering. It would be inconvenient to walk around in those throw-away flip flops afterwards, the polish would get wrecked if I put my shoes back on, I don’t have any cash for a tip… I’d come up with a million excuses and would always end up giving myself a late-night pedicure at home. In this season in life, pampering myself seems to be my last priority. I have so many others to take care of that I skimp on myself. But I am pleased to see that as the year draws to a close, that I’m about to fill up another journal for the year. That in those moments when I had a spare moment to breathe and I had a choice of how to spend my fleeting free time, instead of going to the walk-in pedicure place, I would spend some time filling another journal page. And I feel a sense of accomplishment as I flip through the pages of my fifth visual journal… Sometimes I draw a picture of a place I’ve been or something related to a quote from a sermon or a movie or a Bible verse, other times I cut out pictures from magazines and glue them into my blank book. I doodle, draw, write over pictures, quote lines from my favorite Jesus Calling devotional or scribble out thoughts and prayers and pour out what’s on my heart. It’s like a treasure map of my soul. It shows me where I’ve been, what God’s been teaching me, and helps me articulate thoughts I didn’t know I was thinking and feelings I didn’t know I had until I took the time to write them down. As I reflect on the year and flip through the pages of my journal – I feel that I have “chosen what was better”. I’d rather spend those precious few moments pampering my soul than pampering my soles. My resolution for 2015 is to spend more time at the Soul Spa. Care to join me?