big plans....

Spring is coming. When Mirielle got home from work this fine morning, she said the thermometer on her car said that it was one degree (-17). So it is bitterly cold out there, the kind of cold that makes the snow crackle under your feet. You can see your breath out there. The sunshine is promising but deceptive.

But spring will come. It snowed here on Mother's Day once, but spring will come.

I want to spruce up the house a little bit, paint the inside of the doors and wash up the trim, clean off the scrubby parts where the kitty jumps on the door to go out, things like that. I googled colors of doors, and wasted a good half an hour getting more confused about paint colors. Oh, how I decorate my house from my chair!

But today I won't be sitting here much longer, I have things to do. Sonja K. has not been feeling well so I am going to call the dr. to get her in. I have other phone calls to make, laundry to do, the usual. Yesterday I put my foot down a bit about the older kids helping more around the house, and even got Paul on board to help me do that. A few of them are really good about doing their jobs, but a few others...not so much. It's just that if they all pitch in a bit more, I would possibly be able to think about doing more other things, like....I don't know, like not doing as much housework!

Anyway. The little girls have been telling me how much fun they had with Emily and Abigail this past weekend. Abigail picked them up on Friday and brought them to her physical therapy place, then to McDonalds for smoothies, then to the grocery store where she let them pick out a kind of cereal because they were spending the night at her place, then they picked out toaster pastries...

On Saturday morning, Emily took them to the pool, then out to the diner for breakfast, then to the library, where they each got a book and the, "Eloise At The Plaza" movie, which we did watch last night:)

Em said they cleaned upstairs at her house, re-arranged her desk, and she found a letter written by Camille that said on the top, "Off the job", and the entire page was filled with fake cursive scribbles. They were playing Work, I guess.

Too much fun, they had.

So this morning went well, got the kids out the door to school with very little drama. I did have to clean up a surprise pile of doggy stuff in the hallway, these dogs get spoiled and get to go out several times a night when Mirielle is home from work and stays up all night, but last night she worked, and...someone couldn't hold it. I am just glad I didn't step in it. :)

When I took my five girls shopping on Saturday, we were talking about how a mom could love so many kids. 16 kids, and I do love them all. It is amazing, but I told them that God gives the children, and also enlarges the heart. What they don't realize is how much it weighs on me sometimes, wondering if I give them each enough attention, or that sudden thought that I perhaps forgot one of their birthdays or a really important appointment or something. I am not supermom. There are so many many things that could have been done better, so many things I have forgotten, or could have helped more with. A few of my older kids have taken up so much slack in their days, I couldn't have gotten through those busy years without them. But one thing I do, is love them. And I work, day after day, on keeping my heart soft towards them, no matter if they are in the Talk-Back-To-Mom phase or if they are incessant door slammers. I work on listening to them. Sometimes my brain still feels like a big muddle, can't fit one more piece of information...and one of them asks me to remember this or that...oh dear. By the grace of God, we have gotten through these years! There is no way at all I could have even remotely managed without His guidance.

For me it seems that the single most important factor in our family is that I live in self-acknowledgement about my own sin, that I listen to what God is saying to me during the days...and get grace from Him.

The other day I mentioned that I need to see the treasures that lie in the housework, in the endless dishes and messes and making dinners, day after day. It's so true! There is so much to hear from God in the midst of it all! We can wish our lives away, dreaming of vacations and greener pastures, but here is where I am, and here is where I can either grow and thrive, or become miserable.

And now I must check on Miss Sonja K, and decide whether she is just skipping school because she loves staying home with her old mama, or if she is really sick...probably both...:)