A Time for "Happy Cupcake"

"But the very hairs of your head are all numbered." 

~Matt. 10:30

I've been doing some organizing, purging and cleaning the past couple of weeks because it was desperately needed. I just did this in the fall and yet we still seem to be over run with STUFF! I came across a few things that needed to be put into the kids memory boxes and as I was looking through Tess' something struck me as funny. Her first phrase awhile back was, "Happy cupcake!" Don't ask me why, other than the girl is obsessed with food. The first thing she says when she wakes up in the morning is, "food?" and it's what she says upon getting up from her nap, and what she says riding in the car...you get the point. In her memory box I found the knitted hat that she was given at the hospital the day she was born. Our hospital has dear ladies who knit hats for the babies and make blankets for them. Tess' hat looks like a cupcake! I had forgotten about that and just started laughing when I saw how perfect it was for her. We could never have known then that her first phrase would be "happy cupcake" and yet the Lord knew. I love how he cares about details like that. Those little, seemingly insignificant things really make me smile. It's easy to see God when he's doing big things in our lives and think, "Wow, I'm so blessed". The big things are great and I am thankful for how God works them out but I am especially thankful when I see God in the smallest of things.
It's hard to see God in the smallest of things when we are too busy to stop and recognize it. I know He's there always, in every detail and yet so many times I miss the blessing He is trying to give me because I'm so focused on a task or my plan. How many times have I missed the blessing? I'm afraid to say, too many times. The God who cares about every hair on my head, certainly cares about the little things in my life and too often I forget about that. The simple task of putting something away in my daughter's memory box reminded me that I need to stop and see God in the little things because I'm missing out on too many blessings! I'm thankful that God can use the mundane in my life, like cleaning, to speak to me. He really does meet us right where we are at and if the only place He can get my attention is at the kitchen sink or in the attic as I sort clothes then that is where He'll meet me. I suspect though, that He would prefer to meet me in a place that is less busy and hectic and I'm thankful for this reminder today. To slow down and stop and really HEAR God. I needed to be reminded to consult God and let Him lead my day, not in the big things, that's easy to do but in the little, mundane things...because it's HIS plan and not mine that I should be focused on.

***TIP***

On the subject of keeping memories for our kids I thought I would share what I do. I'm not overly sentimental. I don't save every scrap of paper my kids doodle on or every word they write. I have heard the idea of taking digital photos of your kids work and then saving it on a disk. I think that is such a great idea and if I was a sentimental person, I would totally do this! What I do is I buy a photo box (the kind you can get for $2 at a craft store) when my child is born. In it I keep things I think will be cool to have in the future and cool for them to look at like the hat they are given at birth from the hospital, their hospital band (to show them just how small they really were) and school papers. My favorite things to save from school are the Kindergarten and 1st grade writing papers. The progression is so neat to see and the sentence topics usually crack us up! Class pictures and report cards are another thing I save. Sometimes I will keep drawings or something written but really I don't keep a ton of that stuff because the way my kids draw and write I'd need two storage bins a piece to contain it all! As it is I'm running out of room to store my little shoe box sized memory boxes (a high shelf in one of the closets has worked well for this). Also I keep a journal. I was never good at filling in baby books...not
even with my first one. So shortly after Noah was born and I realized this about myself I decided to instead buy a journal and write about his progress every few months. Little did I know then that I'd have 7 books to write in so the "every few months" part is more like once or twice a year but it still keeps a good record of the major things and I think it's something they will look forward to reading! I plan to give them their book on their 16th birthday.

What do you do to preserve memories without the memories overtaking your space?