As June and I were sitting on the porch today playing withe Magnatiles, I learned a valuable lesson. Well, two…
First, an almost-walking baby Riley plus anything carefully constructed ( Barbie houses, magnets, blocks) is the equivalent of Godzilla attacking an unarmed city…

So we waited to play until baby girl was napping. #smarternotharder
But the second lesson learned, is a real humdinger.
Good things take time.
I know, you probably already know that- but I think I forget this very simple thing. I tend to weigh my worth on wether things happen quickly, efficiently, perfectly, precisely, and in big ways. If they don’t, well- I get a big, fat, red X in the box for the day. And a certificate is in the mail stating I am a terrible person.
However, my Heavenly Father is using my darling children to tell me otherwise.

When we started off, June and I dumped out the basket and just started building. I was building my next dream house, of multiple rooms with floor to ceiling windows, a perfect view of the backyard, while functionally located close to the kitchen, and June was building a house for her princesses.
She and I happily went on our way building and we each thought our houses were perfect, until we tried to place things inside the homes. Every time we reached and opened windows and doors, things fell. We kept tying to set things back up, high up and perfectly, but they just kept flapping down. And we looked around to secure up the structures, we quickly realized we had run out of magnets all together. It only took one quick swoosh of the puppy’s tail as he went flying by to knock both buildings down.
Instead of giving up, ( I did eventually give up my dream of having a home completely made from windows and fancy doors) we regrouped and I looked at her sweet face and apologized for hogging all the magnets. I told her to just start building, and I’d be here to watch and help when she needed.
I sat there watching her, and instead of mimicking my superior strategy of tall and high, she started building little rooms.


After building a room, she gently placed a princess, frog, or Peppa Pig inside- no collapsing.

In her world, she focused on building only what was needed- one magnet at a time, room by room, person by person. Her architectural achievements included such things as a tower with walls for Rapunzel and her art palate, a landing pad for Jasmine and her magic carpet, a room full of dirt and water for Peppa, and a spectacular space for Snow White to look out for dwarfs or a prince who happened to be riding by.
With each of these, Junie took the time to play with each character, making sure they were comfortable in their new environment and ready to be all alone while more constructing occurred. She left them with love.
The best part? When all when said and done, she even had magnets left over. I seriously was having a loaves and fishes moment….

What did June teach me this morning? Good things take time. And to take a step back from trying to do all things in all ways and build skyscrapers.
Just build the things around you. Slowly.
Linger a little, love a whole lot.
#summerthoughts

