Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Birthday Banner





After a half-day at the spa with my husband, I walked in the door of our home to see this banner. The kids popped out from behind the wall and said, "That's just the start, we cleaned the whole house!!" And they did. With the help of their sitter, they tackled every room, vacuumed the living room, and did some major tidying. I could not have been more pleased. They could not have been more pleased with themselves.

I'm just struck over and over by how much we all value work and doing a good job. I am a pretty relaxed homemaker. I know that this is a season of my life, this time at home with little ones but I do get stressed out when I start to feel like "things" are out of control. I have never been a pack-rat and I'm not huge on shopping for household stuff (crafting supplies...well, that's another post altogether). One of my first impressions of Gary, after meeting his roommates and visiting his apartment, was of how little "stuff" he had. I was so drawn to that as it flew in the face of what many of our contemporaries were doing with their apartments, dorm rooms, etc. Nevertheless, life comes with stuff and kids come with even more stuff. I struggle to stay on top of the paper, the clutter, the toys. I am more and more convicted of how we all benefit from being able to walk through a room without stepping on something and I am constantly looking to organize our stuff better. This is not a large home, it's even a "smallish" home by today's bigger-means-better standards. We long to stay here, in part to ward off the collection of even more stuff.

Literally two minutes after our sitter left on Friday, sickness invaded our home. A weekend with little on the calendar changed into a weekend of constant care of our two youngest daughters. I was able to escape for a bath on Sunday evening after holding one or the other of them for about 40 hours. Ahhhhh, that felt great. I've not seen either of them that ill for a long long time. I just rearranged out schedule today, canceling an afternoon lesson, so that I can just focus here again today. Serenity now! Poor Georgia, she wanted to be at the dinner table last night but could not hold her head up to even take a bite.

Speaking of stuff...I got a great order of stamps and accessories from Stampin' Up a couple of days ago. I've assembled all the stamps and now just need to carve out some time to create. Easier said than done.

Have a great Tuesday! More later.

12 comments:

Ara said...

Awww, poor Georgia...no fun being sick.

What fun to come home to that surprise!! Totally awesome of your sitter to think of that for you!! I bet it made the whole day for you? I know it does for me when someone else does the cleaning ;)

Have a good tuesday afternoon with nothing on...just more snuggling!!

hollyday said...

I'm sorry they were so sick. I hope everyone stays well now :). What a wonderful birthday present they gave you though! ((hugs))

Running Kiwi said...

Oh, the poor things - I hope they're recovering well and the rest of the house stays well!

Having the house cleaned and tidied would definitely be my idea of the best gift - good on them :)

and a belated Happy Birthday to you!

Margaret said...

What a beautiful banner and present!!!! Wow!!!

I hope the girls are on the mend soon.

What stamps???

Pam @ Heart2Heart said...

Aww, what a great banner and gift they gave you. Poor girls, I do hope they are feeling better soon. Kerstin is feeling poorly as well, but not as bad as your girls. Here's to germ free vibes for our houses and families!

Tina said...

Awwww, poor baby she looks so pitiful.

I do hope you had a great birthday! (((hugs)))

Miriam Pauline said...

Poor little darlings--I pray that they are feeling better soon.

What a great birthday present! I'm glad you had a nice surprise before the sickies came to visit.

Anonymous said...

What great kids you have. Hope your household gets to feeling better soon.

Bonnie said...

What an awesome present - you can send the kids to my house if you would like.

Christa said...

How sweet of the kids to work together to tidy up the house for you! I hope your little girls are feeling better soon, poor punkins!

Sara Laughs said...

What a fantastic birthday surprise! Happy Birthday!

Meari said...

What a great banner and gift of a clean house by the kids. (I remember doing that for my mom!) Sorry to hear the little ones were sick. Hope they're feeling better.