Dude, Lighten up.

This is my son, "all covered up." He likes to pull his hat, made by his cousin Oakley as a Christmas present for him, over his face so that he doesn't get cold when he goes outside.
You can see Ezra in the background with a bottle. We sometimes give a bottle of something icy to help with teething pain. It helps a lot! He's just now actually learned how to suck on a bottle.

These pictures are from a while ago, but they go with the thought I've had that I need to, that I have the freedom to, lighten up. As much as I long to learn to keep this home simple and beautiful and running flawlessly and enjoy it all, I've realized that many wonderful people have messy houses, just like me. I'm learning to keep up with the housework, to be more organized and whatnot, but it's okay to not be there yet. Better women than I, whom I've met, have piles of things lying around also, and aren't embarrassed about it! This is the way real people live. In some families, moderate messiness is taken as a great taboo, a sign of sloth, but it doesn't have to be that way; messiness can be the symptom also of a healthy family with its priorities in order. People are valued, and they are caring for one another, doing things, living life, full of color and it may leave remnants around the house. Take them as evidence of life lived well.

There is a glorious freedom for us. I'm not talking about flying flags, but the unparalleled liberty of the children of God. There is a liberty like springtime, like the taking off of layers after a long winter. In laying aside even our own agendas, entrusting myself to him, giving in to whatever that might mean, and then finding that he has planned not some grueling march, but a great adventure begun with a long seaside vacation.