Of Messes and Madness...

...And of gratitude and grace...

"Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." ~ Antonio Smith.

  For whirling, swirling days of crazy...

For first days of spring...and for needing to snowblow through them.
For favorite pancakes and homemade syrup...and for endless games of Cribbage.
For reminder texts...

And for end of day wrestling matches with tired Daddies.
For cozy insides...and for still freezing outsides...with sap standing still in their buckets.

For weekend forts...and for brothers sleeping in the same bed.
For late night talks...and for listening to their late night laughter that heals the days wounds.

 For a little boys' equivalent of an "Easy Bake Oven"....and for the "candy guts" that taste like trash.

For a gracious Wal-Mart that allows said little boy to return his hard earned purchase of disappointment, too.

For chickies roaming free....before our latest winter blast.
And for target practicing Husbands who only "tease" the girls because he knows I'm watching...
For thirteen years of waking up beside him...and for it still feeling like it was just yesterday.
For him loving me - no matter what.
And for us having eyes for no-one else...

For tubby time..and for wet, sweet smelling little boys...
And for the dirty days...and sweaty, puppy smelling little boys.
For days of crazy...and for days of calm.
For days of conquering...and for the days where I get conquered...

For homemade Chai...and for when Daddy comes home.
For quiet afternoons of rest and sanity...

And for after supper dance fests that are anything but....

For the messes and the madness...
And for the growing and the learning.
For the living and the loving...
And for the giving of grace and letting go of perfect expectations.

For popcorn every. single. day.
And for the half of a bowl that always lands on the floor...

For two hour conversations with far away friends.
And for afternoon chats over "tea" with my Marmie.
For being real...and for allowing for flaws.

For little boy alarm clocks first thing in the morning.
And for big brothers who love to talk to their "baby sister."
For still wrapping my brain around the concept of a "girl...."
And for life - the crazy, awesome miracle of life - that is stretching and growing within me.

For finger smudged windows...
And for perpetually plugged potties.
For toast for breakfast....and for the days when we have it again for supper, too.
For days of thriving...and for days of just surviving...

For slowing...and for seeing - for really and truly seeing - the beautiful sacred smack dab in the middle of the crazy chaos of life.

And for doing this day, after day, after day....

"If we miss the moments, we miss the whole.  We miss LIFE." ~ Ann Voskamp
#4952-#5010 ~ My Joy Journey