Mondays

Funny thing.

I love Mondays.

Maybe it helps that I get to stay home all day if I want to. That my kids have nowhere to go and nothing to do. That my husband works from home so I'm not completely alone with seven young children.

Whatever the reason, I really like them.

The kids don't play video games or other electronics (except when in the car) on the weekends. So, Monday is a special day of the week (especially if the weather is icky outside like today) as they play, one on his computer and two more on the Xbox. The two younger girls enjoy not being bugged by the older kids while they play dolls almost all day.

I usually linger with a few cups of coffee on the couch. I'm not a morning person. I'm not a night owl, either. 10-8 are my prime hours and I would love to sleep the other twelve if I could. When I'm about ready to get up and actually do something I call the kids in and we do our morning prayers. We start with the Apostle's Creed and Lord's Prayer. Lately we've been reading a page from a toddler book called "100 Bible Heroes". It has a two page spread on each person. Very simple, but enough to start a conversation. Then we read the scripture readings from my Portals of Prayer daily devotional. We end with the commentary in the book and the short prayer at the end. Sometimes we pray more. Often the kids are ready to be done.

With the most important task of the day complete, I start cooking, cleaning, organizing. We accumulate so much stuff, these two adults, these seven kids. It's almost a full time job just decluttering each day. Loose papers, envelopes with special kid written notes, trinkets from who knows where, toys, games, the remains of snacks and meals. There is always something to do. And it will never all be done.

Long gone are the days of cleaning the house to have it stay clean for weeks. And I'm so glad! Vacuuming, laundry, food prep and clean up, moving things back to their rightful places. These are the tasks that consume most of my day. I get a few odd jobs squeezed in, too. My kids are getting old enough to help (today they've been trudging through the thick, wet snow/slush to the garage to check on mama kitty and bring her food and water). It's such a relief! My middle girl loves to clean and is almost always a willing helper. My baby girl who is now four is a natural leader and keeps the younger (foster) kids out of trouble. My boys collect eggs, feed animals. My oldest daughter can almost solely care for the baby now (draws the line at poopy diapers, though! Ha!).

We're growing into quite the team and I never notice it more than on Mondays when we have a whole weekend's worth of cleaning and organizing to do. I think that's why I love these days. Watching everyone work together to get our house back in order. Watching them work together in their play. Choosing to enjoy this life, even the Mondays.