A Breath of Fresh Air

I don't know about you, but we've been having some springtime weather around here. The birds are singing, the flowers blooming, and the trees are budding. It's beautiful outside... and stuffy inside. When DH told me that he had turned the air conditioner on for a few hours, I asked why he didn't just open the windows. Then I realized that the more pertinent question is why haven't I opened the windows? Here I am trying to keep our house feeling like a home, a place where you can feel at peace, a place where love grows, but I've ignored one of the basics: the air we breathe. When I raised the blinds and let the sunshine in, we all smiled a little brighter. When I opened the windows, and the sounds of the birds in the trees drifted in with the cool morning air, the sounds of the boys playing grew sweeter.

Then I began brainstorming about other ways to "open the windows." Today, I'll be pulling out some of my favorite CDs (Stephen Curtis Chapman, Rich Mullins, Creed, etc.) to put back into the rotation. Yes, "Toddler Tunes" is great, but who's to say the boys and I wouldn't enjoy "King of the Jungle" too? I can check out some new devotionals, books, movies, or CDs at the library. Or maybe we could have a swap with some friends and share. And the board games that we put away when our eldest began to crawl... who says we can't come up with some toddler-friendly, educational version of scrabble? Let's mix it up a bit, try something new, and find a greater joy in the gifts God has bestowed upon us.