Mama's Morning Out

This morning was glorious!! I got up early, ate my Grape-Nuts in relative silence, fed Jack, and headed out the door to the church's semi-annual yard sale to work my shift, since I was a contributing de-clutterer.

I had a lot of fun working with my friends. And I picked up some more stuff, other people's junk....funny how that works.

When I got back home after lunch, Owen and Helen came running, happy to see me. All three kids had gotten baths and were dressed in clothes that matched, and by "matched," I don't mean comprehensive coordinating outfits, I mean individually matched, that Helen's overalls and her shirt matched, and Owen's pants and shirt looked OK together. Jason usually does well with dressing the kids, but every once in a while, I will quietly pull a kid aside and swap out a shirt.

They had all eaten lunch, and Jack was sleeping. There was a floral arrangement on the table, courtesy of Helen and her daddy. They had picked flowers in the yard for me. Precious!There was bagged pasta on the counter. I had left a drying rack full of homemade noodles smack-dab in the middle of everything, and Jason had put it away and swept the floor before the kids got into it this morning. (Last night Jason was away, and I was making pasta with the ankle-biter battalion. Owen ate as much dough as he could get his fingers on; he even scraped off the counter where I had kneaded it. He and Helen took turns cranking the machine until Helen discovered the drying rack. She quickly lost interest in the pasta-making process, and there she stood by the finished product, rapidly eating fresh noodles. Jack swam around the floor and got flour on his tummy.)

The sink and drainer were empty and clean, and the dishwasher was running. You might think I'm some kind of freak for posting a picture of my dish drainer, but I'm just bragging on my husband!And outside, there were towels flapping in the breeze. Jason had done a load of laundry! I must add that all of his work this morning was unprompted. I was merely expecting him to entertain the kids, feed them, and keep the house relatively neat. He usually does an awesome job of cleaning up the kitchen, even better than I do, although I'm afraid that's not saying much, since I can be a tad lazy in that area. What a great guy!!!

And now another story, but I promise it connects with my morning, if you can just hang in there...

Last week I had a moment to run into town with only Jack. I stopped by the Economy shop and told myself I couldn't spend over $4. I immediately saw this dollhouse for $2. It was very dirty, and some little girl had colored all over it. I brought it home and cleaned it. My only disappointment was that it didn't have any furniture and was missing some windows and doors. I'm going through a Beth Moore study of Esther right now. In the whole book, God's name is never mentioned, but like Beth says, his name is all over it. What some people may dismiss as mere coincidence is God's providence. It's got me thinking of all the ways God has worked out details in my life. He has done some pretty huge things for us, like the timing of buying and selling houses and vehicles. It's been amazing the way he has led us and provided for us. But I also know he cares about the small details of our lives, and we can talk to him about the littlest things that trouble us.

Before I went to the yard sale, I asked him for some dollhouse furniture. It was a request mainly for my own benefit, since the kids are enjoying the dollhouse just as it sits right now. But, you gotta know me, I just drool all over myself at dollhouse furniture. I think it's so cute, I want to play with it myself! I knew I could be happy without the furniture, but I also knew it wouldn't have been a problem for God to provide it.

And look what I found:It's a whole new dollhouse, on a very much smaller scale, full of furniture and dolls. The front door even has a doorbell! A very sweet girl had outgrown it, and put it on the yard sale to make some money. God is so awesome.

And on another completely unrelated note except for the fact that my husband is so nice and accommodating, Jason ripped out the brown shag carpet in Uncle Phil's old bedroom downstairs. Now to tear down some wallpaper......