Day One of Thirty-One.

I bit the proverbial bullet and joined the #Write31Days challenge put on by home blogger, The Nester.  The challenge is to choose a topic and write a blog post every day during the month of October on that topic.  This October is shaping up to be the craziest yet.  We still have two bedrooms to paint/decorate/ready before our son is slated to arrive (three weeks, people!).  This whole year has been a whirlwind, really.  And yet, amidst the madness I have learned so much from my gorgeous girls.  When I read about the 31 Days writing challenge, I felt a burden (a good burden at that) to simply write a note-to-self each day on something that they taught me.  Although I don't yet know what these lessons will be, I promise you that they will not all be earth shattering.  In fact, there may not be a single one.  However, God has a funny way of using my crazy girls to meet me right where I am.  So, by the end of October my hope is to have thirty-one things that my kids taught me in perhaps the craziest month of of our lives.

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Today was a gorgeous park day.  The air had a bit of cool in it and the sun had warmed the slides up just right.  Before heading home, the gals and I went on a leaf hunt for good tracing leaves.  I was on the hunt for big, perfect leaves.  Ona, however, picked up exactly the opposite.  Leaves with holes and rough edges.  Ones that had been battered by the elements and were hardly very beautiful.  I tried to convince her otherwise, but she insisted that those were the most lovely ones of them all.

It reminded me that beauty may just be that--rough around the edges and just a bit blown by the elements.  Perhaps a picture of us all at one time or another.  And certainly this momma at this moment. Thankful today for this little girl who sees beauty in the less than ordinary and rejoices in the crunch of the leaves--perfect and non-perfect alike.

There is still time to join in the 31 Days writing challenge!