I am breaking all my rules. Unwrapping is about seeing the small things in the midst of our everyday, pausing in the moment, and celebrating. But y’all. I can’t see anything today but the big. The Big Fat Book. I know my kids are growing up somewhere in the background and my husband loves me and the days are long and the years are short. But I can’t see it and I just have to be real with you.

There is something mysterious and lovely about being in book-writing mode. But the times of writing are so intense, that the times of not writing have become the exact opposite. The Man tells me that my on/off switch is now over-sized and drastic. I can sit and write for four hours straight. Sometimes five. But when I come up for air, the fog settles around me, making the daily little things nearly disappear.

My kids names all blur together. Dinner menus are painfully repetitive. My craving to watch mind-numbing television is at an all-time high. But I will tell you this: I know that there is a message in this book, and it isn’t my own. I am watching as He weaves His story through mine, and I laugh and cry as it comes out through my personality on paper. Christ in you is a profound mystery, but it is true. This I know.

Perhaps I have a gift to unwrap after all.

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If you want to link up today but don’t know how, please-oh-please read Darcy’s post: What is a permalink? How do I find mine? All blog linkups ask that you use the permalink to your post or your link will be deleted. So read Darcy’s post if you have no idea what I’m talking about.

If you have never participated in Tuesdays Unwrapped before, you are welcome to join us today. This post may help you understand more about it.

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There’s a reason we unwrap on Tuesdays. It has a lot to do with the song Tuesday by Sarah Masen, the song that was the inspiration for the title of this blog. It also has to do with a real life Tuesday I lived in February of 2009. The 24th, to be exact. I hung my camera around my neck and decided to document the day as it happened: the messy, the lovely and the unexpected.

This is one of the 136 shots I kept from that day. It may look like an ordinary moment, but the truth is he doesn’t really play with those blocks anymore. So what was an ordinary, regular day is now a sweet memory I want to keep. I wondered about all the other ordinary Tuesdays passing by and decided not to let them go without at least a little reflection.

What about you? I am so thankful for the community of women (and sometimes man) who gather here every Tuesday to unwrap the gift of the everyday. One thing we all collectively realize is that what seems everyday today will not be so tomorrow. And so we pause. Join us?

First time? Click here for details on how to link using the permalink to your blog.

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I didn’t use to believe him when he said he loved me. Not because his love wasn’t real, more because I heard the words through my own messed up filter. Somehow during the last ten years of knowing him and being known by him, of failing and receiving grace, of risking rejection and being accepted after all, the filter faded away and truth took over. We choose messy, fantastic love everyday. It’s a gift I sometimes forget to remember, but it’s the best one I’ve got.

Do you have a gift you need to remember? Link up below with the permalink to your Tuesdays Unwrapped post and be sure to include a link back here to make it easier for unwrappers to navigate the links. All are welcome to join.

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To receive this day as it is and not as I wish it was seems like an impossible task sometimes, especially as I stand at the grocery store exit with a cart full only to realize it is pouring. down. the rain. Or when I have big plans for a productive day, but the littlest one is running a fever. Or when they come home from school only to fight until bedtime.

I wish for tomorrow a lot. I rarely consider the fact that tomorrow doesn’t really even exist.

Every week in this place, we purpose to receive this day as the only one we’ve got. Some Tuesdays, I am overflowing with gratitude for the beauty and the peace. I pick out gifts and blessings like two blooms in a whole field full of poppies. There is more than enough to go around.

But there are other days when I trip over too much stuff and too little time. I’m clumsy and worried and fragile. And I desperately need a nap. I am slowly learning what it means to embrace those days, too. Because those are the days when I discover my need for relationship, for encouragement, for community and solitude and forgiveness.

So whether you are in the midst of the mess, surrounded by the lovely or interrupted by things unexpected, I encourage you to pause and consider the gift, whatever it might be. Then, if time allows, share it with us.

Please be sure to include the permalink to your unwrapped post as well as a link back here so all will be able to find one another. If you need help, here are the details. All are welcome to join.

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I have a really bad habit of wanting spring to start two days after Christmas. Winter’s fresh is cleansing, but I’ll take spring’s colorful warmth any time. So here we are in the middle of February. I count the days til the pool opens. I resent forcing carseat straps over thick, heavy coats. I shuffle snow around my front steps in search of brave bulbs peeking green beneath hard ground. I break my own rules of moment cherishing by longing for a season that isn’t ready yet. So this is me, calling a truce with winter.

Do you have a truce you need to call? A gift you need to reluctantly unwrap? We would love to hear about it.

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When you link to your own post, please remember two things: Link directly to the post you want to include and link back to Chatting at the Sky somewhere in your post. Also, thank you in advance for keeping things relevant to the spirit of Tuesdays Unwrapped.

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One thing everyone says during blog conferences is that the best part is what happens between the sessions. A few years ago, I would never have dreamed that the women I read online would become women I know in real life. Those are Emily’s hands, holding her warm cup too early on Saturday. We sat, just the two of us, face to face at a small table by the wall. She is a listener, a question-asker, a truth-seeker. And now she is a real-life friend. I so like her. What a gift.

Join us as we unwrap these small, sacred gifts of the everyday. If you’ve never linked up before, this post will help you with the technical stuff. All are welcome.

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