Welcome back! I hope Holy Week and Easter brought you great peace, joy and time with all you love. Having a week off from work was fun, and the extra time with all my kids and my mom visiting reminded me of some important life lessons I knew but sometimes ignore when life gets too busy. 1) If I want the house to be clean, I have to walk the floors. I used to patrol the house (like Batgirl), and it helped keep the clutter at bay. During ordinary life, when I work each day, I don’t do the patrol. Having a week off illustrated to me how much I need to resume this as part of the daily regimen to keep our house from being buried in laundry, stuffed animals, and Legos. As I told my mom as I perused the upstairs, bringing down several cups used for late-night drinks of water, “It’s like they throw a party every night, and I’m the barmaid who buses the tables.” Until they start tipping, I’m doing a daily patrol. 2) When the kids ask, “Play with me?” say yes. Say yes. Say yes. Say yes. When they want a story read, say yes. When they want their hair in a ponytail, say yes. Stop looking at every task as something to get done and enjoy how often you get to say yes. 3) Delight comes from doing more than people expect, so begin doing more than what is asked. It is where we find joy. I don’t know about you, but I could use more joy. So write the letters. Read the books, exercise, make a meal plan and stick to it, schedule a date, and remember #2. Live it. What were my small successes from the past week? We went to Tenebrae, to Holy Thursday Mass, and the Easter Vigil. We feasted and celebrated my daughter turning sixteen. We enrolled one daughter in her graduate school, and one son in his college. We saw a play. We celebrated our oldest turning twenty-five. We mailed a package to our twenty-year old daughter and got the house clean for Easter. We played cards and smoked two briskets. We drank wine, ate cake and went to a NHL hockey game. I read a book, and remembered the lessons of #1, #2 and #3. Happy Easter and Happy Small Success Thursday!

What small successes are you celebrating this week?

Copyright 2018 Sherry Antonetti

About the Author

Sherry Antonetti

Sherry Antonetti

Sherry Antonetti is a freelance writer, high school teacher and a blogger at Patheos. She and her husband live in Maryland with nine of their ten children and a puppy named Pumpkin.