Procrastination Has It's Bonuses!

 “If it weren’t for the last minute, I wouldn’t get anything done.” – Unknown

This is often true for me....unfortunately. I often tell myself I will not  procrastinate about this or that, but then I procrastinate not procrastinating. Last night, however, my procrastination paid off. The camping chairs and some equipment still had not been put away and was conveniently resting on our front porch. This fueled the desire to roast hot dogs and marshmallows (this is weird, because I don't even like hot dogs or marshmallows). It was Thursday, which is my Friday professionally speaking, so it was time to relax. I pulled out our small propane fueled fire pit made by Camp Chef. It looks like the portable fire pits that you can burn wood in, however, this burned propane and has pumice-like fire rocks to make it look natural.

With the fire lit, we arranged the chairs around it and pulled out the roasting sticks that were still conveniently not packed away. We had hot dogs for dinner and roasted marshmallows for dessert (not quite s'mores as I was out of graham crackers).

That set the mood for a fun evening of street baseball and marshmallow target shooting (the kids made marshmallow shooters from PVC pipe at Cub Scout camp, and we shot mini mallows at each other). We read from Shel Silverstein's, "Falling Up" around the fire, when it got dark. We laughed at the poems, we laughed at each other and at ourselves.

I remember smiling to myself thinking, "What if I had put all the camping equipment away the day I got home?" More likely than not, that fun evening never would have happened. Or maybe it would have.....

When summer break began, it seemed like we were all constantly at each other's throats more than usual. The kids couldn't seem to get along, I was irritated because of it, and nobody was having much fun. It bothered me and I knew something had to be done but it seemed like all my efforts were fruitless.  Then, two weeks ago,as I sat in the pew at church on Sunday listening to the sermon a realization struck me. I can't remember what the priest was talking about other than this lesson that has stuck with me: sometimes we think we can do it all and we try and try and come up empty handed, but we aren't meant to do it alone, God is waiting for us to ask Him for help.

When I heard this my prayers took on a new focus. "Help me to accomplish the duties of my vocations as mother, and help my children and myself to have charity in our hearts for one another." It is a simple act of invoking God's help, but it has made a difference in our family's dynamics. Not to say there are no longer squabbles and lack of patience, but there certainly is less of it, or perhaps it is just easier to handle now that we aren't relying on our own weak powers.
Cheers!

love,
Gina.