Little Helpers

I had one of those moments yesterday where something little and simple just made my day and put things into perspective for me. First, I have to confess, my role as housekeeper is a significant weakness for me. If my mom is reading this, she is probably LOVING this...but I find myself saying things I remember my mom saying- "I am doing circles around you kids trying to keep this house clean!" is my personal favorite. But anyways, it seems like I do pretty good during the week, but I get totally behind on the weekend. By Monday, I am usually behind about 2 loads of dishes, the floor is a mess (with 3 little ones, it seems like under the table needs vacuuming after every meal!), and laundry is piled up, to name a few. So, Tuesday, when I was still playing catch up, I watched my friend, Gail's 3 kids for a few hours in the evening. As always, dinnertime was chaos, as everyone was hungry the second I started preparing the meal, the two little ones were under my feet, and the older kids became slightly bored with one another and began aggrevating one another. But we made it through dinner, and I thought...these kids have been pretty good to entertain themselves while I made dinner. I should clean up so I'm not even more behind on dishes, but I'm going to give them my attention and do the chores later. So, we had a blast going outside to blow and pop bubbles, play in the sand box, and draw on the sidewalks with chalk. So, after Gail's kids were on their way home, I came back into the house to face a train wreck, and thought, I am TOO TIRED to do this now. Somehow I managed the smallest amount of motivation, and as I got started on the dishes, I asked the kids, who were all relaxing and watching a movie, if anyone wanted to help Mommy. To my surprise, not only did they want to help, but they did not even whine; I would even go as far to say they were enthusiastic. They all started different chores happily, and at one point, I stopped what I was doing, and just looked around the house at each child. There were Jadan and Shae, folding towels together and Cooper was on his hands and knees vacuuming under the table with the DirtDevil. I am still getting teary-eyed remembering that feeling of gratitude that swept over me for that glimpse of time. I thought, these little angels are such a great example to me and they will never know how their little acts of kindness, done so happily, touched my heart.

So, I wanted to do something fun to show them my profound gratitude in a way their little toddler minds could appreciate...After they went to bed that night, I went to WalMart and got some suckers and $5 movie. I wrote them each a special note and left a trail of suckers leading to a hiding place where the notes and movie were. I was out for my morning walk when they discovered the trail, but Danny said they were so excited and they even had thank you cards made for me before I returned home from my walk...I just feel so BLESSED that Heavenly Father sent these sweethearts into our home. Some days are a challenge, but days like today really put things into perspective for me and just remind me how precious families are and how much I can learn and grow through being a mom and wife.