These days, I’m learning all the more to appreciate the power of the “little win.” I forget how much effort it takes sometimes to get the troops out of the house or to appointments, and I definitely underestimate the empowering feeling of successfully running errands with everyone in tow. But when we do it, goodness. It does feel good. I think I’ve always been sort of bent toward having the adventure versus staying home, though in the last year or more, becoming a homebody was certainly easier (if not mandatory) that it’s been for me before. Having been home so much, it’s almost like I’d forgotten just how much we all enjoy getting out, too. And there are days when I’m just not up for it and days when I wish we’d kicked ourselves out of the house, so there’s a balance to strike, for sure.

I foresee the days I’d like to tuck in at home, and they’re coming. They’ll probably arrive right around the time everyone is back to school and schedules are in full swing again. That transition period will be interesting for us all, but then fall will arrive and we’ll start to get into the hibernation mode that comes with chilly weather, and for a while I imagine it will feel so good and timely that the seasons are changing in that direction.

Today we went to a play outdoors in the rain, followed by lunch out and three dentist appointments for the kids. I might have been a little tired at the end of it all, but mostly, it felt like an accomplishment to have had an experience together and three successful appointments checked off the list. I have to hand it to our crew, too, because they handled rainy weather and dentist chairs like champs today, which made me awfully proud and grateful. To see our four year old walk confidently down the hall with the hygienist on his own feels like grace and also like time is moving too quickly. I couldn’t help but think, “Who is this young man and how did he grow up so fast?” when I went down the hall to check on him and he didn’t need me there a bit. It’s so cool to watch our kids come into their own. It’s also so sweet of God to give us another chance to watch a little one grow up from the start. My heart has not been ready to kiss the baby years goodbye.

Tonight as I look at tomorrow’s plans and the next day’s and the next, I’m going to try to keep my eyes on the little wins–the moments when everyone is content or getting along, or when all have recently been fed and no one is clamoring for another snack or wondering about dinner time. We’re going to celebrate the days when we get out and about and hold ourselves together, and if I’m learning anything in these years of parenting, we’re also going to celebrate the good times in the midst of outings that didn’t go so well, but that had shining moments in the mix of what felt hard. We’re going to get the ice cream (because I’m learning to live a little in my old age), head out to the beach for an impromptu sunset (speaking this into our lives because we surely need more of it!), stay out in the rain when we’re not yet ready to come inside and sprinkle all the to dos and errands (that we can manage without breaking) in between the fun things.

There’s a lot of summer to be lived yet, and I sure do intend to live it if we can. It might not feel like a season of giant leaps in areas I’d love to be leaping through, but it definitely feels like a better opportunity in many ways…the chance to appreciate what’s in front of us, the pattern of unscheduled days that allow room for small progress and rest, and a pace that feels healing instead of harmful, which benefits us all.

This is the summer of the little win. I’ll take it.

MM