Today was the first ‘get-back-to-real-business-day’ in a long time for lots of us stay-at-home moms.  I love the Christmas holidays.  I drink them in to the very last drop.  I extend them if at all possible! They really begin to hum around Thanksgiving week with a brief couple of weeks in-between in the first half of December (when we pretend to be productive ) and then…Christmas bells begin to ring and Bing Crosby begins to sing!!!  Then comes the pause of life’s must-do’s.  Glorious.  No papers to correct.  No stringent schedules.  Everyone chills and rides the happy wave of party time.  Offices keep odd hours and everyone understands – it’s the holidays! Eggnog lattes and peppermint mochas make their appearance. Snow cancels everything, we eat ourselves out of our favorite jeans and watch too many movies and football games.   Glorious indulgence. Slumber parties abound.  Alarm clocks are a thing of the past and daily chores aren’t so daily.  We can’t live there forever, but it’s sure a fun trip. Eventually, back-to-school Monday arrives.  That’s today at our house.

I just talked to my friend tonight (and by the way, mother of 8 wonderful, even delightful! children still at home – this incredible family living contentedly under the same roof in their 1600 square foot home!  God’s grace.  So many spoiled Americans whining about the size of their houses…).  Anyhoo…I phoned about something entirely unrelated to our ‘Mondays’ but then she told me she had been working on taxes for their small business the entire day…sigh.  That’s tiring.  (You know how I feel about taxes if you’ve been reading my blog ) I could hear subtle fatigue in her voice.  And I quite easily commiserated as I’d been working the entire day since 7 a.m. (actually – pull out the violins – I began yesterday morning until church, began again after church and called it a night around 9 p.m., too tired to go on) cleaning out shelves and files, evaluating, scheduling and adjusting the remainder of my home schooling year, attacking and digging through every drawer and closet I could get to and tossing anything I couldn’t live without; cooking, cleaning, repeat, waiting on sick kids, laundering the sheets from our recent houseguest – all the while defying my discouragement at the mountains I needed to move and aggressively deciding that progress would be achieved!   I was on a mission. When I put the phone down, it occurred to me that many of you are in the same boat today…paddling your way into 2009 with a vengeance!  At moments feeling very weak and small, but nevertheless pressing on.  I smiled.   It felt good to be in such good company.

Hubby scrubbed and I just now dried the last pot from breakfast (old fashioned oats with raisins-getting back on the wagon-ha!), lunch (leftover homemade vegetable beef soup and sandwiches) and dinner (fancy pants tuna casserole in disguise and steamed broccoli) and sat down to say ‘hi’.  So here I am, shifting gears today.  There’s no easy way to do it, but it’s gotta be done.  I pondered the last year and so many memories flooded my mind for some reason – some happy and some sad – making my eyes misty.   Seasons always changing.  Although on the surface things might look dormant, God is always working and the process He’s overseeing is carrying us on into the future.  Be strong, be bold, be encouraged and be found in Him.  The best is yet to come!