For Sanity’s Sake by Taprina Milburn

The washing machine hums, the cat meows, the wind chimes chime.

It’s nothing but an ordinary day.

No party to go to or mile-long errand list. No friend lined up for lunch, no project deadline.

Simply ordinary.

I think on most days I strive for extraordinary: How many friends I can see or talk with, how many errands I can run, how many activities I can cover, how productive I can be, how much fun I can have. I love extraordinary, but it wears me out. I’ve had a lot of extraordinary days and plan to have many more, but I'm beginning to appreciate ordinary days.

Our lives are made up more of the ordinary than extraordinary anyway. I noticed this recently when I sat back and savored the conversation going on between my husband and son as they worked on math homework.

“Dad’s a good teacher,” my son said after they finished.

I was happy to be privy to their ordinary moment.

I don’t typically take my kids to school any longer because I’m already at work by then, but when I had a day off recently and drove my kids, my daughter said with some satisfaction, “This is just like old times.”

Simply ordinary.

I remember as a mother with young children, I’d watch mothers with older children and think, “Someday my kids will be independent like hers.” Her life without diaper bags, strollers, playpens, and bottles looked heavenly and extraordinary—and made my life feel very ordinary and clumsy.

Today, my tall children are well on their way to maturity and no longer require the accoutrements of infanthood (only the accoutrements of teen years—cell phones, iPods, and video games they can carry themselves). Now I think: Those ordinary days were incredible. The picnics in the park, the tea parties with stuffed animals, mud pies in the backyard, naptime rituals.

Then again these ordinary days are incredible.

My long-legged kids have schedules of their own. It seems our family is going in many directions, and I have to remind myself, “Don't let the ordinary pass you by.” Listen to their stories even if they are told to you on their way out the door, watch them interact with each other, put down the “extraordinary” projects, deadlines, and activities to soak up the simple moments life is made up of: Beautiful, ordinary days.