Slow Down, Smell the Flowers

I've been getting a lot of inspiration from my Living Faith daily devotional readings. Today's selection includes the following:

"My life can be very busy, but at times the busyness involves so much skimming of the surface that I end my day having done all I should do, but still unsatisfied, cold and anything but exhilarated. God is in the details, they say. Perhaps I need to slow down and consider those details. God, help me live in an awareness of your constant presence."

I was thinking about this this morning, as I raced around the house getting things ready. I wanted to prepare dinner, so that Mike and Henry could just pop the casserole bowl into the oven around 4:45 this afternoon, before I would arrive home. I needed to pack my lunch. Henry needed to be readied for preschool. Mike has 8 am class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so he was off by 7:30. Busy, busy, busy. Today at work I want to finish a book review that I'm working on, then I have about a dozen other things that need immediate attention. I'm on the reference desk for an hour at noon. I have a student coming to see me at 4:00. I want to take a few hours of comp. time to get some shopping in. I am a person that is very pleased with small things, and I need to not get so consumed with the larger picture that I lose sight of that. Taking the time each morning to read a daily devotional has done me a lot of good.

With regard to the shopping, on a different topic, I'm very excited :) I'm seizing the opportunity to go to the craft store without Henry in tow throwing yarn into the aisles. I would like some yarn to make Christmas gifts and I'm armed with Sunday ad coupons. I'm also making a Home Depot run and to Sherwin Williams for paint. I've been driving my sister crazy with my paint selection process this week. She has a good eye for color, what can I say? The other alternative is my husband, whom I love dearly, but if I ask him to assist in color choices, he says they all look the same. I think it's a man thing :)

Anyway, the last room that I want to paint this year is our guest room and I want to paint it red. You wouldn't think that would be so difficult, but I tell you, there are a *lot* of variations of red, and I got tangled up in each of them. I have a fall bouquet in there, and the colors inspired me to want a red in there with an orange hue to it. No easy feat, I assure you. I've finally decided on a color called Red Cent. I think Sherwin Williams should give me a free gallon of paint for all the product placement I do. We always use their paints - good stuff. So, I'm excited. More paint in my hair tomorrow, oh joy.