Thankful Thursday

I'm not one for having a clean house.  Sure I often keep the house straightened up, but unless we have company coming over, you can often see a layer of dust covering the tables and dust bunnies parading across the floor.  Needless to say my temperment leaves for much to be desired while cleaning.  My hubs would rather turn around and walk back out the door if he knows I'm trying to beat the clock by packing in 3 weeks of cleaning in 3 hours worth of time.  And you would think I would learn over time, but the vicious cycle has continued throughout my whole marriage.  I am simply a bear.

I had hoped that the girls had a little more type A personality ingrained in them, so that they would not procrastinate like myself and only clean when they knew it was only absolutely necessary, but so far that trait isn't showing through.  We go through daily struggles of trying to put away Polly Pockets and Barbies in their correct spot or eating over their plate so as not to have crumbs all over the floor and table.  And I try and remember that they are just kids, and training them is a slow process, but I don't want bad habits to go by the way side either.  More often then not though, I get frustrated that they aren't cleaning on my time table, and I end up cleaning it up for them, so I get things done when I want and how (which I realize is a disservice to them, but hey I'm being honest).

But the other day I was in another one of my mad dashes to clean a lot in a short period of time, when Kyra asked if I could play a game with her.  I hastily reminded her that we had company coming and if she wanted to enjoy her time with them, then I had to focus on cleaning at the moment.  She walked away looking somewhat defeated, but I blew it off while thinking to myself..."if she would clean up more of her mess more often then maybe I wouldn't have so much to do right now!"  About 1/2 hour later, I went into my bedroom to find that she had folded all of our laundry.  I had never even taught her how to fold laundry, or asked her to do it for that matter.  And you know what?  She didn't do half bad.  I burst into a huge smile and told her what a fabulous job she did, and how proud I was of her.  She told me that she wanted to help us out and that she even organized it by person and season.  At that moment I was honored to have such a thoughtful daughter, especially after I had snapped at her in such a way. 

I am trying hard not to get so worked up over cleaning these days, and remember to ask my children way in advance to clean up and do their part, so they are learning responsibility too.  And I am trying to exhibit some of the grace to my children that God and Kyra have so earnestly shown me.