Its rainy. again...and we've been spending our days painting away. I love it. When the paint comes out Jacob yells "yaaaa mess!", and it is. But i don't mind, i love watching them paint, i love seeing what types of pictures they are going to come out with. At the moment they step back and decide what it is, for they are young and don't seem to think about what to paint before they start. It shows me what is in their imaginations. Where I see scribbles and spots they see forests and lions. The world and airplanes. I get a glimpse of what is going on in their heads. After Easter Kaylin painted a picture, a world with a cross and a sun. It showed us that our Bible readings are listened to, encouraging for at times the teaching and correcting and loving are exhausting.
Jacob is on a mission, all the time. In a hurry to finish one thing so he can do another. Kaylin can lose herself for hours in painting, puzzles or colouring. Often when the younger two are sleeping all I need to do is set her up with one of the three and I can catch a quick nap. She turns her music on and is content. More rested from this than from sleeping. Amazing how different these little ones can be.
This one has been demanding this week. Convinced she's starving unless fed every three hours....
And smily. She seems to think that when there is conversation in the room someone is talking to her and bursts into smiles, waving her chubby arms.
Being at home can be discouraging at times. The laundry piles up and the dust settles. The house gets cleaned but seems to dirty faster. There are constant interruptions. In writing this I have stopped three times, one to feed a screaming baby, to discipline a little boy who seems determined to wash all my dishes in the dogs water bowl, and to sooth a crying baby. Its a busy life. A happy life. There are good days and bad days. Days that much are accomplished and days when it feels like there is little but dealing with bouts of tears. Other days when the sun is up and we play outside and go to the park where I am truelly thankful that I am here with them. That I'm learning about them as they learn about themselves. For every day that seems to make me want to pull out my hair there are good days. When they listen and are obedient. When we paint or when we play with play-doh. It makes the bad days seems not so bad.
And Easter was a time that I was reminded of the good. That He has arisen! and that life is not meaningless and in our routines there is joy. Joy in the truth of what we know. The knowledge that He has saved me, an undeserving sinner. That He has tasked us mothers for the job of instructing the ones He has given us. Of showing our children the joy that we have in or Redeemer. This joy needs to spill into our lives. One night I said to Drew "I wish that I could just be at home, with nothing else on the go." (it had been a hard week with little sleep and many needs) I realized later that to ask this means to exclude myself from a family of believers. From a church that feds me with eternal food. That we are called to serve, whatever way that might be. In being there for a friend, in making a meal for a family who is struggling, in serving on committees or organizing nurseries.
I'm setting my clock earlier to start the morning with devotions. To get up earlier than the kids, I fear that I have been neglectful in personal worship, and caught up in the business of the day. Easter is a favorite time for me. A reminder not to get lazy in worship, this year we were blessed with no illness and we all went to church. To sit in church as husband and wife. To be re-energized. To spend time with family.
And Maddie has woken up and I must go. I wish you all a wonderful weekend!
