Searching out the Beauty, Determining to find the Joy

Some days are just, well, tough. They seem at the time to be overwhelming, and difficult, and tiring. In the moment they feel anything but beautiful. Joy and patience seem to have escaped with the first pitter patter of little feet. The constant cycle of making messes and then cleaning them up begins to take its toll on your mind and you find yourself wondering why in the world you're doing all of this.

Luckily over the last week, I've been taking pictures of just about everything we do. One day I wrote down every single thing I did in a 24 hour period. Just to record a day in the life, to document a week in the life around here. And what I found after looking at the pictures and reading through the list at the end of the day, was that there was actually beauty tucked in there. Little tiny pieces of beauty and pure joy. I didn't see them at the time. It took looking back on my days to see it.

Morning Farm Chores: 1) scoop the chicken poop and goat poop, add it to the compost, put it all on the garden spot 2) water the chickens and gather their eggs 3) feed and water the goats and if necessary, change out their hay (about once a week)

Breakfast: 1) fix the eggs and oatmeal and/or bacon for six people 2) get them all to do their chores and come down for breakfast 3) teach them Bible and geography at the breakfast table

School Time: 1) get everybody learning something 2) watch Rosie make a mess with math manipulatives 3) watch Samuel dump the crayon bucket at least once 4) observe the classroom that began the day clean and organized be cluttered with little hands learning to use scissors

Afternoon Outside Time: 1) Try to get in something educational- this day we collected pond samples and explored to find things from the protista, fungi and monera kingdoms and then look at them under the microscope 2) play with the farm animals

Evening: 1) Chop up a ton of vegetables and fix a healthy dinner for the fam. We've been trying several immune-boosting veggie soups lately 2) Love on my man when he comes home 3) Love on the kiddoes- even the fussy baby boy ones 4) Watch them express their creativity- Allie sewed this shirt to this skirt and voila! a new dress emerged.

Looking back on the week, I see tons of beauty. I have to remember the Proverb that says that a trough without oxen is clean, but increase comes from having the oxen. Or something like that. These little people are worth the constant laundry and dishes and messes. The big guy too. :) I heard a sermon on the radio last night that urged us to remember that there are two things that will last forever: God's Word, and people. Everything else will burn. The times spent teaching and loving these little souls will last. And if I determine to see it, there is beauty everywhere in the midst of it.