It’s funny…I get so annoyed when I can’t fall asleep at night. There should logically be no reason I’m still awake. Up at 530 this morning, recovering from some stomach yuck, and life, I should be three sheets to the wind. There has to be a reason. I decide to stop fighting it about an hour later of pulling at covers, tugging on the sheet, fluffing the pillow and flopping from left to right…Geeeeesh….Emergenzzzzzzz, here I come.

I make my way to the kitchen. Water. I need water. You know, so I can be awake again in a couple of hours. Insert humor. Not funny really. 

Even more annoyed now….

Then I glance around. 

Alex’s dirty socks on the kitchen floor, mind you.

Olivia’s stuffed dog lazily stretched across the kitchen table.

Alijah’s pile of clean clothes, just sitting in the toy room, which I asked him to remove, mmmmmm, a few times.

Nick’s work shoes with his two pair of socks falling out, setting right in front of there they get put away. You know like the laundry pile beside the hamper. Grrrrrrrr…..

Funny. These things tug at my heart. 

I see Alex’s socks and can just hear the pitter patter of his feet across the kitchen floor… 

I can hear Olivia’s voice conversing with the toy dog, in her make believe world…

I hear Alijah bouncing his basketball in the house…

I hear the sound of the key turn in the door as Nick comes home after a long day….

My heart smiles. 

• This is what makes our house a home. These things that annoy me also remind me of the love and patience and humor and, wait, did I say love, that lives here. By no means is it ever completely picked up, with all the dishes washed or the laundry finished or started by that means. Sometimes we eat ice cream for dinner and eat breakfast at noon. I don’t make my bed everyday. Heck, somedays I can barely get out of bed. Things aren’t always perfect. I’m learning to just love the mess I’m in. To be thankful for the mess. To pray through the mess. Sometimes the mess is a gentle reminder of a family being raised. Sometimes that means sleepless nights and groggy days. Sometimes, I am all about cleaning up the mess. Other times, I just have to let the mess be the mess. Sometimes I have to get up in the middle of the night to see that the mess isn’t always a mess, but a gentle reminder of God’s blessings everywhere. From the dirty socks to the toys under my feet, they are everywhere. He is everywhere. He has given me much more than I deserve. Thank God for that. I guess I needed to have Him pull me out of bed to show me to be thankful, more thankful, of the life that has been given to me, that I surely don’t deserve…

Grace…

Every time…

This time…

And for the next time…

Rest easy in that…

And before you go to bed…

Give Grace…

Give Grace A Hug…