How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!

How skilfully she builds her cell!
How neat she spreads the wax!
And labors hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.

In works of labor or of skill,
I would be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.

In books, or work, or healthful play,
Let my first years be passed,
That I may give for every day
Some good account at last.

~Isaac Watts~

I wasn’t planning on choosing a word for 2018.

Mostly because my “follow through” has been a bit “iffy” the last few years and I felt a little discouraged with myself. My goal over the past few years has been to simplify, to make do, to peel away a lot of the extra things that have kept me so, so busy, and because of that, I’ve let some balls drop. A few have rolled completely away and I can’t even find them. Last year I tried to pick some things back up, and still dropped a few of them due to unexpected circumstances. So, I was planning on just “being” this year, without thinking too hard about what this year would hold.

However…

My word for 2018 accidentally came to fruition with the purchase of a new journal. I usually buy a new one in January, but was going to make do and keep using my old one until it ran out of pages. However, my daughter Kate was buying herself a new journal and asked if I wanted to order at the same time to save on shipping.

And there was one with bees embossed on the cover.

Who could resist?

I mean, bees.

I love bees.

When I began drawing in my calendars for this year, I kept quoting to myself
the opening lines from Watt’s poem “Against Idleness and Mischief”
and thinking about being “busy as a bee.”

Now this may seem like a complete contrast to my paring back years. But I stopped and thought about bees for a bit. They are busy. Industrious. Faithfully and continuously working.

Diligent.

A bee stays busy at what she’s supposed to be doing. What she were designed to do. She wouldn’t think of getting distracted and heading off for some new scheme. Nope. It’s honey-making and comb-building every day for her! She’s diligent about her work.

And I need to be too.

About building and sweetening my home, my family, my friends, my church, and my little home business. A little at a time, I’m picking back up the important things, the things I was designed to do, and diligently working on them.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside still waters.
~Psalm 23:1-2~

We live a pretty low key life at this point.

Home, and family, and church, and friends, and a few weekly appointments and activities that go along with raising kids. Our weeks usually feel rather normal and routine. I like the feeling of knowing what happens on specific days of the week. Sometimes, though, it does feel like the days and weeks run right smack into each other, without much of a real “stop what you’re doing and lie down” sort of rest. We had one of those this past week or so.

The Tummy Bug hit.

Hard.

Mom was the first victim, getting sick on a Sunday night, completely out of the blue. I spent Monday on the couch. Nana and Pop-Pop swooped away the active Toddler Boy, leaving me with just a Tiny Boy that stayed right next to me in the Pack ‘N Play or swing. As long as there were bottles and diapers and snuggles, he was happy. Hubby had to work, but he ran the errands and brought home ice pops, diapers, Gatorade, and a rotisserie chicken.

The next morning I felt a little better, but we called off Tuesday’s Tot School with the grands just to play it safe. Wednesday, Tyler was acting mildly sick and wouldn’t eat much, so we decided we’d better stay home from church and not spread any germs. And thank goodness we did… Hubby woke up at midnight with the same hard-hitting yuck that attacked me three days earlier. Tyler’s version was mild, so we kept watching him like he was a time bomb, waiting to explode at any moment. Thankfully, he didn’t, although he barely ate anything all week and was very droopy and tired.

The “yuck’ part of this lasted only a short while, but the “wiped out” part lasted for days. Every day I woke up feeling slightly better, but ended up needing to sit still after cooking something or washing some dishes or folding a bit of laundry. On Friday night, I turned the remnants of the rotisserie chicken into soup. By Saturday, I was feeling energized enough to go to the grocery store, but when I got back I slept all afternoon. We took one more day to rest on Sunday and then I began slowly pulling the house back together on Monday. The parents of the grands were still boycotting any potential germs, so Tuesday’s Tot School was cancelled again.

Ten Days of Rest.

Rest that interrupted our plans of fellowship, family
activities, and work, but evidently was much needed.

It made me think of how the Good Shepherd had to MAKE his sheep lie down and rest in the cool, green pastures. How He had to LEAD them to drink the cold, still waters. I wonder what those sheep were trying to do or where they were trying to go? Were they so busy doing sheep stuff that they forgot to rest and be still for a little while? Sometimes we all need a few days of forced rest.

Also… Isn’t it interesting that the prescription for
getting over illness is plenty of rest and lots of fluids?

Green pastures and still waters.

Moses had a stick.

The widow had a small jar of oil.

David had a slingshot and five little stones.

A young boy had five little loaves and a couple of small fishes.

God was able to use those small things in mighty ways.

Choosing my “One Word” for 2017 took a little while. It was a bit jumbled up in my head… and even on paper… until I realized that “Stewardship” best summed up all my random thoughts.

To me, “Stewardship” means taking care of what I have… keeping it, managing it, organizing it, saving it. But more importantly, it means USING IT. Enjoying it. Finishing what I’ve started. Filling it up and not letting it sit idle and empty. Creating and building with it. Spending it down to the last bit if it will bring about something good and useful. Taking a risk with it rather than squirreling it away. Redeeming it and giving it back to the Lord with interest, like the two faithful servants Jesus spoke of in the Parable of the Talents.

It might seem as if there’s not much you can do as a homemaker on
a tight budget with lots of little people hanging on your legs.

Or as a working Mama with barely a minute to spare.

Or as an emptier nester whose chicks have flown off.

But what’s that in your hand?

A well-stocked pantry? A dining room table? Unfinished projects? Tons of craft supplies? Your home? An empty bedroom? A few spare hours? The nest egg you’re saving for a rainy day? Talents you’ve set aside during the busy and demanding years of life?

That’s the question I’m asking myself this year…

How would the Lord have me use what is in my hand?