Early in the morning

It is early at my house. The sun is out and the house is quiet. Even the garbage man has not been on our street. But thanks to my early alarm (my back) I am up early and enjoying the quiet of the house.

There is something special about having these few minutes to myself and I find myself walking around on tiptoe so as not to walk the Little Princess and spoil the mood. I have to clean up the mess left from snacks in the living room last night, but I don't want to touch them because as soon as I do, she will hear and wake up and then the magic will be broken.

I get so little time to myself where I am just alone and quiet and I can greet the day on my terms at my pace with no little voice demanding breakfast, toys, television and attention. Not that I mind that stuff but it is nice to have 1/2 hour to recharge my batteries alone before opening the door to her beaming face and greeting the rest of the day together.

Once she gets up the day really begins and I begin packing for my move, cleaning up messes, putting out garbage, and all that fun stuff. Before she gets up it feels a little like playing hooky from school, I am supposed to be doing something else but until the someone arrives to drag me back to my duties, I have no intention of going back on my own.

Silly I know, because left to my own devices, I would go back on my own and I know that given a little time, I will probably wake her up. But in the meantime,I am enjoying my little mini-vacation. Rambling on to you about some nonsense that you probably don't really feel like reading but when I opened my blog to write this is what came. Lucky you, huh?

Love
by Jo Ann Merrell

If I live in a house of spotless beauty
with everything in its place,
but have not love,
I am a housekeeper ...
not a homemaker.
If I have time for waxing, polishing,
and decorative achievements,
but have not love,
my children learn of cleanliness
... not godliness.

Love leaves the dust
in search of a child's laugh.

Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints
on a newly cleaned window.

Love wipes away the tears
before it wipes up the spilled milk.

Love picks up the child
before it picks up the toys.

Love is present through the trials.

Love reprimands,
reproves and is responsive.

Love crawls with the baby,
walks with the toddler,
runs with the child,
then stands aside to let
the youth walk into adulthood.

Love is the key
that opens salvation's message
to a child's heart.

Before I became a mother
I took glory in my house of perfection.
Now I glory in God's perfection
of my child.

As a mother,
there is much I must teach my child ...
but the greatest of all is
"LOVE."