By Michelle (Graceful, Faith in the Everyday)
We ate outside on the back patio last week. I didn't want to, but the kids love to eat outdoors when the weather gets warm. They beg and plead, and when I say no, they react like I’ve just announced that they'll never again eat ice cream for the rest of their lives.
I wanted to say no to supper on the patio. But I said yes instead.
Before you go thinking I'm the most boring, curmudgeonly mother in the world (which, frankly, I am), and wonder why in the world I wouldn't just have supper outside for crying out loud, let me explain.
Our back patio is not near the kitchen. In fact, one must walk through the entire first floor of the house to get from the kitchen to the back patio. This means every ketchup, mustard and salad dressing bottle; every fork, spoon and knife; every plate, every napkin, every beverage, every salt shaker, must be traipsed outdoors.
Open the slider, close the slider. To the patio. Back to the kitchen. To the patio. Back to the kitchen. Open the slider, close the slider. You get the picture.
And don't think the traipsing ceases once we're all seated in front of our plates. You know what it's like to dine with young kids, right? "Mommy, I dropped my fork." "Mommy, can I have more water please?" "Mommy, I don't like Italian dressing, I want Ranch!" "Mommy, a fly landed on my French fry, can you get me a new one?"
So it's up, down, up, down; open the slider, close the slider. Into the kitchen, out to the patio all through dinner. The one benefit: I burn more calories serving supper than I actually ingest.
Yet last week, I said yes to dinner on the patio. And here’s why.
Last January I read a post by Ann Voskamp over at A Holy Experience. In January Ann resolved to say yes. And although I didn't publicly vow to say yes, I resolved to say yes in my heart, right along with her.
As I've mentioned before, no is my default. It's not that I'm a terribly mean, frumpy, stick-in-the-mud mother (I sort-of am...but not 100 percent). It's just that I have trouble embracing mess. I have trouble embracing different. I like the same-old, same-old. But if there's one thing for sure about kids, they aren't keen on the same-old, same-old.
To them, eating dinner on the back patio on a warm, early spring evening is like dining at Le Cirque. They totally dig it. They get fired up. It's a major-league big deal.
So I said yes to supper on the back patio, and you know what? I know you're not going to be shocked one bit to hear this...it was awesome.
Too early in spring for bugs, the air was clean and still, the sun shining late-evening golden, long shadows cast across grass. The magnolia and purple hyacinth bloomed fragrant, and the air trembled with the warbles and twitters of backyard songbirds. A light blanket of peony-pink cirrus drifted overhead.
And then, on the suet feeder a mere four feet from Rowan's head, a dainty nuthatch landed, nibbling dinner as the four of us grinned at each other and held forks poised in mid-air. "No one move," whispered Noah, and Rowan slowly turned around in his seat to glimpse the tiny bird behind his back.
"It's like being in a nature show!" I exclaimed in a hushed whisper.
Noah nodded. "See?" he said. "Eating outside just gets us closer to God."
And if that's not enough reason to say yes, I don't know what is.
What have you said yes to lately? Go ahead, give it a try. You just may find it brings you closer to God.
Michelle is a Christian wife and mother of two originally from Massachusetts now living in Nebraska. She is a part-time writer, editor and fundraiser for Nebraska PBS/NPR. Michelle loves to write about how her family illuminates God's presence in her everyday life, and on finding (and keeping) faith in the everyday. Michelle enjoys reading, running and writing. Be sure to go visit her blog, Graceful, Faith in the Everyday.