Precious Times

Tonight I was frustrated by how the upstairs looked. I'm not the best housekeeper, and I will be the first to say that I don't make a huge effort, but I've never ceased to be amazed, and often discouraged, at how quickly kids can make a huge mess. Last week I cleaned up the boys' room (for the first time in probably a month), and I had to pick everything up twice that same day. They seem to like just dumping the toys out. It's probably as obvious to everyone reading this as it is to me--I should not be the one cleaning up their room! So even though it would have been easier to just put them to bed, I told them we were going to clean up their room. Well, actually, I said (maybe yelled) to Tate, "Clean up whatever you want to keep, because I'm throwing the rest of it away!" Then I said I'd pick up the books. He said, "Let's clean up everything, because I want to keep it all!" In reality, it only took about 5-10 minutes to get everything put away, even the toys that were still out in the living room. Tate said, "Wow, look at how nice this looks!" and Chase said, "This room is CLEAN!" Everyone was in a much better mood (I'm sometimes embarrassed about how much God blesses me when I don't even remember to ask--but I am so thankful!). We read stories, sang and prayed. I taught them a new song tonight and explained it. Then Tate said he wanted to tell me a story and sing a song about it. He started talking about Adam and Eve, and how they sinned and had to leave the garden, and God sent two angels to guard the garden. And then there was darkness. And then God created more people, and he sent them out into the world to build their houses and cars. The "song" came next--From the dust of the earth, God created . . . cars . . . and trucks! For people to buy! And car parts! For people to build cars! And when kids disobey, they get sent to their room for five minutes, where they pick up their toys. He went on and on, and I was biting my cheeks! It is amazing what an almost-five-year-old picks up on! He's just my little boy, you know? He's growing up so fast, and I'm so glad that I spent the time to hear his story and song, even though I still needed to put the girls to bed and whatever else was on my list.

And the girls. We are reading Love's Long Journey by Janette Oke. They love this series. We've been at the chapter where a woman dies in childbirth, and since I've read the book quite a few times, I was dreading reading it out loud, because I knew I'd cry. I'd made comments that I didn't want to read this chapter, so when it came time to read tonight, Britta made sure she was in her bed before I started. I'm not sure if she was afraid of getting emotional herself, or if she just didn't want to watch me cry. :) My voice wobbled, and I shed some tears, but I made it through! Sammy was supposed to be putting her clothes away as I read, and I read two chapters before she was done. Not that there were that many clothes; she just kept stopping to listen (and she tends to move very slowly anyway). Britta was so bad at dinner tonight--she couldn't tell me enough how gross the tuna salad was that I made, for which she got another big spoonful to eat. When will she learn? Then they were both so sweet at bedtime. My kids can frustrate me to no end, but I am so thankful for them.