Sunday, January 18, 2009

It's In The Little Things

The past few months our children have become aware of 'The Force'. Star Wars is all over our house. Don't misunderstand, our children have been aware of Star Wars for years now, but over the past few months they have witnessed all six episodes in The Saga and are now all padawan learners.

So, it came as no surprise that one of the things on the Christmas list this year was light sabers.

They already have three. However, they aren't this guy's or that guy's and there's not one for everyone or friends when they come over.

Luckily, R.C. remembered that we still had a light saber or two in storage and it became his mission to retrieve said light sabers, clean said light sabers, and replace batteries in said light sabers. He was successful in his mission.

The surprise was that there were six light sabers in storage. SIX. How in the world did we ever become the owners of NINE light sabers?

Anywho, Christmas morning we set the light sabers out under the tree, without wrapping them, so the kids could play with them while we got out of bed. And I'm not kidding you when I say that the joy over those old light sabers was so crazy that they could have been the only presents under the tree and it would have been 'The Best Christmas Ever!'. The kicker is that they knew the light sabers were old. Things like, "My Annikan light saber!" and "My old Dooku light saber!" could be heard in our house Christmas morning.

R.C. and I have now decided to take some of their other toys and put them in storage again till Christmas. Hopefully we'll get the same reaction.

And then this morning:

Two things you must know to appreciate the story I am telling. One is that we have a sock basket in our house. Instead of pairing up the socks and having people put them in their drawers I just throw them into the sock basket and let people dig them out when needed. During the summer this wasn't a big deal because who wears socks in the summer, right? But since winter is upon us it has become somewhat of a hassle.

Second, while I prefer to keep my house picked up, I am rarely in the mood to actually pick it up. So when the cleaning mood hits me I jump on it. This morning the cleaning mood hit. I could tell before I was even out of bed. We had a big day yesterday with one half the family going one way and one half going another and when we were all home yesterday evening I didn't feel like picking up or making anyone else do it. So our house was messy.

Not only was I in the mood to clean, but I really hate coming home from church to a messy house so this morning I got to it. And one of the things I felt compelled to attack was the sock basket. Every one's socks were paired and placed on my bed next to their folded pile of clothes.

When I told the boys to get their shoes and socks on they asked if there were new clean socks in the basket and when I told them that their socks were on the bed I was surprised by their reaction.

From the living room I hear, "Yeah! Mom folded the socks!" "Now we can have socks in our drawers!" and even a "WOOHOO!"

It really is in the little things.

Bridget

3 comments:

R.C. said...

They never cease to amaze...

Tobias Valdez said...

So right! I'll be honest, I love having clean socks in my drawer. That's normally where they are, but on occasion they are left in the basket after being taken out of the dryer, or they just get left in the dryer. So to find them matched and put in my drawer is nice! My mind does the whole woowhoo thing quietly in my head.

But I do put the laundry away on the rare occasion that Brenda doesn't manage to get it all done before I get home.

Ro said...

It is a blessing to be appreciated for those things that rarely even rate a 'thank you'! And to have the sounds of praise echoing through the house is awesome!
I love you! Rochelle