Unexpected Grace

Drake and I had mapped out some time for me to take for myself this morning. I was going to head to adoration, catch a spin class, and come back home. Sounded simple enough.

None of that happened.

As my phone bit the dust this weekend, I took the ipad with me as I wanted Drake to have our one functioning phone with the kids. We agreed that I would email if I needed something while I was out. So I left our home around 7:30, headed out to the van, and figured I would look up directions from there. Well, before I left the house, Maria was screaming about who-knows-what, Dominic was struggling, and I decided I would just go exercise at a more local Y and try to get to adoration. Then I would be back home in time for us to head to the Labor Day parade.

Well, as with many well-intentioned plans, this didn't pan out either.

I couldn't access the Internet from our dear old van, and so it meant that I couldn't look up directions to either of the places I had intended to go. So I came back in the house, figuring that I'll get some of this personal time at a morning retreat that I'm planning to attend tomorrow at a local parish.

I came back into the house. I'll just go upstairs and exercise with Jillian.

You guessed it. This didn't pan out either. So I snuck away for 3 minutes to send a quick email and then was notified that breakfast was ready.

So I instead sat down to breakfast with the rest of the Steeds...yummy pancakes compliments of Drake. We had started a rousing conversation at the table (the topic of which I admittedly have forgotten). And then...

I dropped my coffee. All over myself. And all over sweet, unsuspecting Thomas. And all over the floor. And all over the chairs.

Thomas started screaming. I started silently stewing (alliteration intended) about the events of the last 2 seconds, cleaned up the mess, and headed upstairs to shower. Drake helped Thomas calm down, change, and get back to breakfast.

Wasn't I supposed to be adoring our Lord in focused contemplation and working out the frustrations of the week in a spin class right now? This seemed like a far cry from that.

I came back down after a quick shower and rejoined our family breakfast. Maria and Drake were sharing a pancake. Thomas was dressed, calm, and eating. Dominic was off playing somewhere. But things were somewhat peaceful. And I reveled in this.

I took a moment to sit back and just marvel at the moment. And I realized that I didn't want to be anywhere else but here. Truly. I didn't have to work very hard to make myself be okay with all the changes in plans. I just was.

Instead of burning calories, I was consuming them. Instead of sitting in quiet solitude, I was in the middle of controlled chaos.

And I was at peace.

Praise be to God.