Dirty Troughs

The house is extremely quiet this morning.

It's quiet and its messy.

I have had family staying with us since December 18th and this is the first morning to wake up to an empty house.

I kinda didn't know what to do with myself.

But the first thing I did was dive into God's word for a much needed immersion of truth.

Ahh...It was like refreshing water for a very parched soul.

And as I looked around my living room and saw all of the remnants of my grand daughters having been here, I sighed.
First, because I already miss them.
Secondly, because I have a huge day of cleaning ahead of me.

There are toys that must be put away and stored until their next visit, favorite books to return to the bookshelf, crayon marks to be wiped off my coffee table, finger paint to be scrubbed off the bathtub and enough crumbs to feed a small army needs to swept off my floor.

At first I was like..ughh.
And then the Lord reminded me of a verse...

 "Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; but much increase comes by the strength of the ox." 

Proverbs 14:4

Yes! Thank you Lord!
 I have all of these messy little reminders because I had a house FULL...Full of family, full of fun,  full of grand babies, full of activity and most of all, full of love.  I would much rather have had that, than have a spotlessly clean "trough"!  Yes, I have a full couple of days of cleaning ahead but I am left strengthened by many many memories of time together with my little "oxen".

Here is a taste of the  last couple of weeks...

Enjoyed playing and playing and playing..

Made the prettiest pink sugar cookies you've ever seen.

Introduced them to old school Sesame Street on DVD  (1970's episode)

....back when Gordon still had hair.

 Took an occasional nap.

Made "castles" with our field peas and mashed potatoes. 

Cooked up a storm. 

Convinced her Paw Paw she needed this phone while we were in the check out line at Walmart cuz it was  pink and she didn't have a pink one.
 (This would have NEVER happened when our girls were growing up!)

Played Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior on the iPad.

Drank LOTS of strawberry milk! 

Made new friends.

(Please note paw paw's LSU flip flops...Geaux Tiger's!)

Explored...

Made lots of music and didn't worry that our clothes were dirty. 

Watched Tangled with Paw Paw a thousand times.

FaceTimed their parents and "kissed" them over and over.

Ate Popsicles in the living room on Honey's favorite pillow. (eek!)

Made a trip to Sams and LOVED all the food samples:)

Snuggled a lot.

Dressed up fancy for dinner.

 Giggled..

And last but not least....
Meet "Baby Jesus". He's been in the family for 14 years.
Lydia made him in 4th grade....

He's a little peanut.

 Julia Rose came walking up to me showing me a half eaten peanut...I knew we didn't have any peanuts and then it hit me.....
Julia Rose ate baby Jesus!!!
We didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

 But we mostly laughed.

I'm so thankful for my time spent with these girls.
SO thankful for their parents who share them with us.
And I'm thankful for dirty troughs.

Now that the dust has settled, it's time for me to go clean em.


Stephanie :)


Feels like for-evah since I linked up with this lovely lady..