My life as a busy mother of six often leaves me wondering if there is something to be grateful for. And then, every once in a while, I get a wake up call and realize how truly blessed I am; so I determined that this season, I will count my blessings. After all, motherhood isn't all fevers and flus, carpools and homework, dirty toilets and dirty dishes, piles of papers and mountains of laundry. So, here goes...
I am thankful that my living room has not been declared a national disaster area, even though it often looks that way. I am thankful my neighbors are too kind to mention it. I can enjoy my kitchen even when it looks like a tornado hit, because it means my family loves to cook and eat together (we just all hate the cleaning up part.) I am counting as a blessing 6 pairs each of wet snow pants, gloves, and boots piled in front of my patio door, because it means my children were warm today. Heck, because it means they went outside to play! I am grateful for my children's school papers, lying in unsorted piles, scattered helter-skelter. They remind me that my children are blessed with dedicated teachers year after year and that my children love learning enough to actually do their homework! (well, most of the time.) My heart and home are blessed by strains of beautiful music. The sounds of my children singing and practicing their instruments are truly beautiful gifts my kids give to me.( The singing is spontaneous, the practicing requires nagging! And I used to be such a nice mommy!) Glory be for books! I am so thankful to live near a library and All Those Books!
I am eternally thankful for a kind and supportive husband. He cooks breakfast every morning so I can sleep an extra half hour when I've been up in the night with the baby. Which is still just about every night. And he sends me shopping when I Just Can't Take Any More! What a guy! (Well, he does know I won't buy anything we don't really need. He knows that's just my way of being alone.) I love my mother and father for never giving up on me and my wonderfully challenging siblings. And that they are still at it after 8 kids, 14 grandkids, and almost 40 years. My gratitude goes out to my cousin in the army and my brother-in-law in the reserves for caring enough about our country to want to protect it. I am grateful, too, that my big brother loves the Constitution and actively works from within to make positive changes for our country. I feel so blessed to wake up every morning in a peaceful valley in a free county. I am free (among other things) to make 30 hour road trips with my husband and six kids in a little minivan to visit my physically distant family (if and when I get up the courage.) I am thankful for phones, digital cameras, the Internet for bridging the distance between those 30 hour road trips.
I am thankful also for faith in God and the freedom to worship him how I choose. And I am most especially grateful for the love and sacrifice of His Son, because it means that someday all my mistakes will be swallowed up in his atoning sacrifice, and that my family will all be together again someday.
When life with my family gets overwhelming, I just need pause and remember that blessings, like laundry and dirty dishes, are never ending. The only difference is you don't have to look as hard to find the laundry.
PS. After six kids, I am really, really thankful for disposable diapers. (And the system of free enterprise that makes them possible!)
