Mommy, Why Is My Bed in the Bathtub?

or
When Will This Day End?
or
Carpet Installation and Eternity


After deciding to stay in our house for the medium-term, we decided to replace our carpeting. The previous owners had a Siberian Husky. In Texas. A bit far from his natural habitat. Let's just say there were no arguments that the carpet needed to go.

I had assumed they would do one floor at a time, but they unloaded all the furniture from both the upstairs and downstairs at the same time, then ripped up all the carpet, then laid the new carpet. As a result, there were no beds available all day for the boys to nap. Nor even a dark room for a makeshift bed. There was also little room to play, so we headed to the backyard. Then it started raining. So we were inside--two fussy boys, lots of noise and weird smells.I hate feeling like I can't wait wait for a day to be over. It is always a result of not being aware of and grateful for the many, many blessings and gifts and graces received.

Thomas A Kempis writes in The Imitation of Christ, "Grant me to know Your will, and reverently to consider all Your countless blessings, that henceforward I may yield You due and worthy thanks. I know and confess that I am wholly unable to render You proper thanks, even for the least of the many blessings that you grant me, for I am less than the least of Your gifts. When I consider Your boundless generosity, my spirit grows faint at its greatness."

Yet, there are days when I can't wait to put the boys to bed, take a shower and go to sleep myself.

I have neither the charity nor selflessness to eradicate this feeling, but whenever I glance at the clock to mentally calculate the hours or minutes until bedtime, I try to have an eternal perspective. Days may sometimes seem long, but a lifetime is so short for loving and serving one another. I know I must treasure each day, each hour, I have with my family...not just the easy or fun times.

The brevity of life is made more real for me as a dear friend just lost her baby, as we approach the anniversary of losing our baby, Kolbe Francis, and as we prepare for Holy Week.

Of course, it would be better for me not to have to remind myself to be grateful and patient and generous, but to actually be grateful and patient and generous. But, by the grace of God, I am given the opportunity to begin again each day seeking to know, love and serve Him and my family.


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A parting testament to a tiny bit of sleep deprivation...the latest batch of thank you notes for sweet and thoughtful baby gifts appeared in our mailbox stamped "returned for postage". Yet the return address labels were firmly adhered. If you are expecting a thank you note, I apologize for the delay. Mr. Incredible thought this was very funny.