Last Night and This Morning

A peek into the new laundry room, every inch is used, and very much appreciated!

Last Night in desperation I went to my daughters for help. 3 or 4 clean loads of laundry were heaped in piles instead of neatly folded into the children's baskets. Thousands of pine needles prickled all over our basement carpet. Dishes were piled upstairs. the boxed Christmas decorations were not in the attic, but stacked in the piano room and by the downstairs fireplace.

I was at my witts end with the housework.

The girls were willing to come to my aid. They set up their little stereo in the little laundry room and began to fold and sort as they sang and giggled with each other. I brow beat my younger youngs to stay in their beds as I swept the carpet, then vacuumed, then unclogged the vacuum's suction tube, then tried it once again. As the lines left by the vacuum revealed clean floor where dirty had been I felt a sense of relief. I have literally gone back downstairs just to see that one spot is clean in the very upturned place that is our little abode.

The dishes went undone. The girls went to bed past their bedtime. But Christmas is laid to rest at the Spruces, and one corner (the corner where the tree used to be) is tidy and as it should be.

Lucy is satisfied with the food storage hot chocolate prepared to help her greet the day

This morning I took my (and your, thank you) advice, and prepared hot chocolate for scriptures. I was quite surprised at how unimpressed my 3 oldest children were at my efforts. But Porter? Porter! He was up and going before you could say "Swiss Miss". He listened as he dunked his vanilla wafer into the warm chocolate drink, and instead of crying when it was his turn to read a verse ("I don't even know which one I"m supposed to read mom! How can I read when I'm so cold and tired?! MOOOMMM, don't make me do this!") he was ready and willing. The little girls were equally elated to find warm drinks when they awoke. This was a total upside to what turned out to be a crazy morning (I caught Porter continuing his eagerness to read in his bed later in the morning when he was supposed to be making said bed and picking up the bedroom floor-this is a recurring theme in our family...reading as a guilty pleasure and a total distraction to work that is at hand).

So, we are making it through these early January days. I didn't realize until this morning how much I've been missing the sun. I think the Salt Lake Valley inversion has become more hazy and yucky since I've been away. Those gray, murky days are not a welcome sight for me. Better get saving for some snow shoes and order up the extra warm long johns. I can tell I'm going to need lots of trips to the canyons to make it through the rest of what is feeling like a dark and soupy winter.