Mottos

I think a lot. My friends who know me well tease me about it. My husband puts up with my "dump truck" approach to sharing all my thoughts with him. My blog provides a place to share some of them as well, so thanks for listening.

Lately, I have been thinking about my mottos. Well, I didn't really ever decide to officially have a motto, but I realized that there are these common pep talks or advice that I give to myself. "Settin' up the pins for knockin' them down" is one of my recent favorites (if you don't know about it, then you must not have Sara Groves' latest album which you must get right away). Here are some of my other mottos:

--"Fast is slow, slow is fast." A wise friend named Dave Brodsky once said this to Jeremy and I as we were getting ready to lead our team to Kazakhstan. It relates to everything--rushing through something and then having to do it over, not taking time to lay the proper groundwork (like when building a team or a house), or not pre-treating stains in laundry and then spending half the day soaking and scrubbing said stains. This phrase was going through my head the other day (and I should have heeded it) when I was lifting a heavy tub high above my head to put on a shelf without using a stepstool (it would have taken too long to go get) and then almost breaking my neck and half the kids' toys as I threw it across the room to avoid squashing my tiny baby that was underfoot. Yeah.

--"There's always something." That may sound vague to you, but it means a lot to me. It kind of relates to "lower your expectations, and then lower them again" (also said by a friend before going to KZ). Just when I think there's going to be enough time to get something done, money in the bank, peace and quiet, something unplanned happens. I'm trying to learn to relax and go with the unexpected instead of getting all mean and bent out of shape about it. This also especially relates to one of my kids always tripping and falling on the way to the car on a Sunday morning.

--"I'll save it because I might need it someday." This one is my glory and my shame. I end up being a pack rat, but I also get such a thrill when I can put something together using materials I have around the house. Like this recent project:

Or this:(It's my attempt to be optomistic about starting potty-training with Evan for the 4th time. The sparkly foam that I used to make his name is left over from a MOPS craft.)

--I saw this posted on a blog I read:
That definitely translates to a motto of mine. I have learned to accept it. And my family enjoys it, too.

My kids are watching "Where the Wild Things Are" for the 3rd time. We watched it as a family last night, and since we got it from the Red Box, we have to get our money's worth out of it until 7 pm tonight. Here we are last night...
...we were going to have microwave s'mores but I decided they would be too messy, so I just let the boys have the ingredients on their snack trays in front of the t.v. Their post-bath hooded towels often have the same effect as Max's wolf suit, so I thought it was appropriate that they wanted to wear them. I was so excited about this movie and I think it is really well done, but it kind of makes me feel tense and upset. I don't really know what I think of it, except that it makes me think of the verse, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear." That would be a good motto, too, given my propensity to want to yell at my kids lately. I'm still trying to figure out why KW hid Max in her mouth...there's gotta be a deeper meaning in it that I'm not getting yet. I do love the scene at the end when Max's mom gives him his dinner (that was still hot) and she falls asleep while watching him eat. Someone wise once said that no matter how hard things get with her kids, she always keeps their favorite food on hand so that they will always come home to her. Home is where the mom is, right? Right.

Feel free to post a comment with your motto(s) and/or your thoughts on "Where the Wild Things Are"!