going against nature

That's how I feel continuously....it is natural for clutter to accumulate around here. Natural for people to leave stuff around....besides making dinner for 17 of us every night (Camille doesn't eat "people" food yet, only baby stuff), keeping this place picked up is the hardest thing. I hate nagging ....yet, I find myself doing it.....or picking up their stuff myself.....I mean, I can get this place all cleaned up, but then I have to be like a soldier to keep it that way...and if I have to go shopping, or to appointments, then things slip, and before I know it, huge work just to get it decent again....so it feels like I am just pushing and working against the natural order of things....and sometimes I am tempted to just give up and live in a messy house. But I just can't. I can't stand: crumbs, sticky, or clutter. So I'm in the wrong line of work. Because those things are a constant when you have kids....the crumbs and the sticky are partly easy: I'm pretty picky about containing thoses to the kitchen table....and we do keep the table washed and clean, and the floor swept.....but the clutter: everyone has an mp3 player, and a backpack, and their waterbottles, and the book they're reading, and ect......and the little ones like to play in the living room.....


I don't mean to complain.....I just wish we lived in a huge, spacious, clean, organized house....I love clean.....yesterday one of the little girls said it seemed like mommy doesn't do very much laundry.....I was gone all day yesterday! And Abigail actually washed some stuff for me........it seems fruitless sometimes, because when I get up tomorrow morning, I'll face the same things....but I need to remember, this isn't about living in a furniture store showroom: it's about raising these blessings to be upright members of society, and faithful to God.


Only 3 days left of school!!! I told the little girls this morning (Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne, and Sonja) that we are going to work on them getting along better....it has to be their choice, basically. The laws of Moses didn't stop sin, and the laws of Mommy won't either. (Of course if they hit each other, or scream, they have to come out and sit for a while)....but I am appealing to them to see themselves, and recognize when they get mad, and fight against it....say no. They are never too young to learn to take up this battle against their own natures, to ask God to help them be kind.....because He hears.....and the humble recieve grace. Jesus made a way for us, a way of salvation, and it works. For this, I am thankful.