Peace

Everybody who is home is asleep right now.  I have been sick for 2 days.  There is laundry to be done, the sink is full of dishes, I have work sitting on my desk that needs to be tended to, but, I feel

peaceful

My husband is a wonderful man who let me spend half of Sunday, all of Monday and this morning in bed.  He took care of everything from breakfast, to lunches for school, to dinner and baths.  My oldest pitched in and helped put Jo to bed while Jimmy bathed Gabriel last night.  This was the first time that he bathed the little one.  He says they are too slippery and wiggly when they are that little.  It makes him nervous to bathe them, but he did it. 

So, he is taking a well deserved rest while Jo takes her nap and Gabriel is with my mother-in-law at the babysitting job she works at down the street.

I ran across this link while I was reading one of my favorite blogs, small things, and listening to the music and reading the words made me feel peaceful.

There are so many things that I am grateful for.  I am grateful for my husband, whom God sent to me after so many failed relationships.  I am grateful for my children, that they are all healthy and strong.

Specifically, I am grateful for Elizabeth, and how she is such a leader with a heart big enough to encompass people from all different walks and backgrounds in life.

I am thankful for Jo, who is such a handful, but who is teaching me patience and gentleness, which I often lack, and who has a heart of patience with those smaller and less capable that she is.

I am thankful for Gabriel, who is strong and hearty.  A bustling, bouncing, healthy boy.

I am also thankful for my inlaws, who put up with me and my 'weird' ideas like cloth diapers and composting and drying the clothes on the line. 

Tomorrow is the beginning of Lent, which marks the beginning of Christ's walk to the cross.  That is one thing that I miss from my time growing up in a Lutheran church...the importance of Lent in our traditions.  The Baptist church does not delve as deeply into the season as the more traditional churches do.

I am always looking for ways to make this season as set apart as I feel that it should be.  Because without Lent, without the crucifixion, and more importantly, without Easter, our faith is naught.

And I will continue to strive to set this apart in my children's hearts, too, but for today I just feel peaceful because my family is safe and blessed and healthy, and because there was a walk to the cross that ended in crucifixion and ultimately in the resurrection on Easter Day.