Dear Blessed Mother...

​As we navigate through these uncertain and unprecedented times with fear and questions, please help me to be thankful every day for my health, and that of my friends and family and to pray for those who are not so fortunate.




As a mother, now firmly planted at home, please help me to:

• Stop buying all those things I never bought from those pop up ads on Instagram and Facebook…just to try.

• In my leisurely boredom, help me to curb my need for online shopping realizing this is not the time I really need that new bra from True and Co. express delivery.
• Resist the temptation to be a first grade classwork imposter so he can go outside to play basketball.
• Stop telling my younger children to “do the math first” so I can take a picture.
• Be more understanding that my third grader really does need to multiply and add and subtract and refuse the urge to give her a calculator so she doesn’t ask for help.
• Stop promoting Google as an online textbook.
• Really formulate a list for the grocery store and stop making up necessities just to get out. “Fluff” is not a necessity.
• Wash my hair more than once a week.
• Stop baking like my livelihood depends on it.
• Miss the people I really miss, but not wet my pants over the joy of not seeing those I just cannot stand.
• Stop thinking homeschooling is actually a “brilliant” idea created by a mother who just needed some time off.
• Understand that “social distancing” means I cannot choose who I want over my house…
• Relocating to an Air BNB in Florida is not escaping the pandemic, even if we are homeschooling by the pool.
• Not driving anywhere means saving gas, which is now less than 2.00 a gallon.
• Understand that the price of an item on QVC does not mean it’s free because I bought it on 6 Easy Pays.
• Understand that board games are not real. Nobody really wins anything except the opportunity to yell at others across the table and make your kids cry.
• There’s no “brand new car!” hiding behind living room curtain number three.
• Looking back on this quarantine and the value of family, and simplicity.
• Value the uninterrupted time of prayer in my own mind. Thank God every moment for the gift of shelter, food, education and faith.
• Appreciate that life in every form is fragile…even among the strongest and the healthiest.
• Those who you do not think suffer outwardly, do suffer. They may save those  sufferings as a sacrifice to the Lord for the good they do have. But everyone carries a cross.
• Be more understanding of those I did not understand before…understanding  begets understanding. Help me to judge less and give more at a time when everyone’s fate is questionable.
• Thank the Lord for my talents and my faith, and use them to nurture my family  and my creativity, and ask Him to direct me to others who might gain from me​ in their time of need.

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