This Saturday, will you join me in celebrating?
As best I can figure it, “PI Day”, as celebrated on March 14th (3.14) by math enthusiasts, pie lovers and moms looking for quick entertainment ideas, will be more complete this year than ever before and ever again in this lifetime.
(assuming you state your dates as mm.dd.yy, otherwise….but let’s not go there)
I was actually in all 3 categories the first time I celebrated PI day 4 years ago with three adorable blondes. I had just arrived back from a long girls weekend at the beach and needed some Monday entertainment for my tribe. I found the idea of PI day online and loved the idea of spending the day drawing and measuring circles. And pie. Obviously.
Little did I know how thankful I would be that I had spent that day playing, baking, photographing and just loving my kiddos. It would be a day that changed forever our family. It would be the last day there were only 3.
It was a day that would only happen once.
Our very first “PI DAY PIES”- 2011
By that evening, three more kiddos were sleeping in our home. And though they haven’t spent every night since, they’ll forever be part of us. The Lord has worked through our experiences with them to forever shape our family.
Every year on March 14th we celebrate PI day.
We celebrate with circles,
a favorite book,
eating round foods
and obviously making and eating PIE
(because what circle is better to measure than a crust full of sugar?).
Much like the fact that they have a watered down understanding of the meaning of “PI”, the kids aren’t really to the point of fully recognizing the days meaning to our family. But they know it’s the day we decided to work together as a team to help the three bonus kiddos and their parents.
PI day reminds me, each year, about the days we won’t get back as parents. It reminds me to make memories, to be present, to celebrate the little things.
The Lord used PI day to teach me about His provision. How He gives us enough to do hard things and then layers it with additional sweetness like the memories made playing on a day I’d need them most.
Most of all, through PI day, I became confident that the Holy Spirit speaks and guides us to say Yes to big things smack dab in the middle of our ordinary things. And that the ordinary things can become vitally important in the process of the Big things.
I can’t wait until my children and the three more can sit together as adults and talk about these lessons of PI day. But until then, I plan to continue drawing and decorating circles, measuring “about 3 times around as through the middle”, and baking pies with funny looking symbols on them.
And with each mark of the crayon, each snip of string, each giggle at smuggled froot loops from the necklace, each lick of the spoon, each mess made- I’ll pray that in these ordinary things I’m teaching them extraordinary things. I’ll lace our conversation with “do you remember” and “we couldn’t believe” and “guess what happened” and “isnt God so very good” and “I’m so thankful for you”. Like any day in parenting, it won’t be perfect. But isn’t that just the point? The day won’t be perfect, but who knows to what big things they are being prepared to say “yes” in the middle of that imperfect day. And this day in their preparation will only happen once.
March 14, 2015. 3.14.15, calendar wise, “PI” wise, will only happen once. This year it will be more complete than ever (especially at 9:26:53, for the fellow nerds out there). Will you join me in celebrating? Bake a pie, make a fruit loop necklace, make giant circles with chalk on the driveway, have a circle hunt around town. Don’t let the Pinterest-age pressures of the perfect PI activity interfere. Just celebrate. Together. And even better- maybe we could all encourage our other momma (and Daddy) friends to take a break from the crazy and spend some time celebrating the ordinary this Saturday.
Your kids may not fully (or at all) grasp the concept of what is simply known as “circle day” at our house, but there are so many fun things to do with circles, I bet they won’t care. And in the ordinary, expect that you are all being prepared for big things. I think that as you gently lace the conversation with “do you remember when…” and “it was so exciting to see….” and “can you believe how good God is?” you’ll make memories you’ll cherish and they’ll be molded by.
Because this day will only happen once.
ABL
If you do join us in celebrating 3.14.15 would you send us a picture or share a link or tag a post with #teambeelewpiday so we can show our kids? I’d love them to know about other families celebrating the ordinary and anticipating the extraordinary. We will let them know you are joining with us in praying for our bonus kiddos, and in celebrating the day that started it all.
