Finding Joy in the Mundane

As I was begrudgingly cleaning my house again today I had an epiphany and thought I would share in case someone else is feeling the same.

I have 4 children between 2 and 10yrs and I home school them so they are home all the time.  We live on a large bush (and mud!) block.  When you add these things together it equals mess!!  Oh, and did I mention three of them are very loud, very active boys?

I was lamenting the fact that my house, no matter how much I seem to clean, never looks like those photos you see in magazines or on tv or even  some of my friend's houses.  It is slightly on the old side, and needs some work inside and out.  There were muddy tracks in the front entrance, a pile of sand on the lounge room floor, clothes to be folded, dishes to be washed and lots of loose papers and books in the school area.  Not to mention the toy room.

I was getting increasingly frustrated with my two year old, as I had just finished arranging all of his books in height order and he decided he felt like reading them all, every single one. I sighed and then told him, "Not now, Mummy has just cleaned them up."  At that moment I had my epiphany and my whole attitude changed.

As I looked around my house instead of seeing reason to complain and feel frustrated I now saw many reasons, some very small and some large, to be exceedingly grateful.  The dirty dishes meant we had eaten today and would not go hungry.  The pile of laundry meant we had clothes to wear.  The muddy tracks and sand meant my children have a huge block to run and play and explore the beauty of God's creation and even more important,  that they are healthy and able to run and play and explore.

The piles of papers, school books and toy room reminded me how blessed I am to have my children home with me every day. That I can homeschool them and get to impart so much to them at this precious time of their lives.  In fact, everything reminded me of how much God has blessed us and suddenly the mess didn't seem so bad and as I watched my older two helping me put the toys away and unload the dishwasher it became a joy instead of a burden. So, I put down my vacuum cleaner and sat with the two year old and read every single one of those books , well except for a few that I managed to sneak back into the bookshelf when he wasn't watching!!