Today...

Today I took time to enjoy my kids. it doesn't always come naturally.  Some days I am running around like a frantic lunatic to get everything on my to-do list done.  Some days I am so irritable that if one of my kids so much as chews too loudly in my ear...

But not today.

Today we did not go anywhere.  We stayed home.  Actually I had three of my friends' kids over so I guess on paper i should have been a bit frantic. but I wasn't.  It was nice.  So what was different about today?

I didn't have a to-do list, for starters.
And I just felt thankful.

Me and Waylon played in the back yard and looked for tomatoes in the garden...I made cardboard creations with my kids (ones which they played with all day! go figure!) We had sherbert with sprinkles, and when the girls were done with their showers I brushed and blow dried their hair (which is not an every night thing).  We read our devotional and talked about how to show God's love at school tomorrow.

But the best part about today....

Tonight as I told Hailie (my foster daughter) how special she was and how much I loved her, she looked up at me, fighting back tears.  They were welling up in her eyes and I could tell that her walls were falling down but she just didn't know how to let them.  She said nothing to me, just hugged me real tight.  But I know she heard me.  It might take some more time, but one day I hope she trusts me enough to believe me.

Lord, don't ever let me get too busy that I forget the importance of encouragement.

 ^"whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away."  James 4:14