Taking Time for Joy

You've just spent several days with a lot of time down in the basement with the children, clearing out stuff to take to the goodwill, sweeping, vacuuming, reorganizing and rearranging furniture so the boys can move their bedroom out of the schoolroom where they have been this summer.

And you remember that this coming Tuesday is your twentieth anniversary.

And you want it to be kind of special.

So after washing a huge stack of dishes and seeing that apples get chopped for a dessert, and after hanging a load of laundry and seeing that various job are done, you iron your wedding dress you found back in a closet, and you decide to try it on so your daughters can see what you looked like twenty years ago. i  

But this time, you have a little daughter who is eager to be in the photo, too. 

Your seventh child, five years old.

And you take some moments

for joy.

.

Because there will always be stuff on the couch to put away...

 

and stuff to load onto the truck to take to town to sell for a friend.

 

And there will always be the next meal to fix...

 

and another load of laundry to hang on the lines--rags for cleaning the milk goat and comforters to dry.

So you just take time for joy!

So now the wedding gown is ironed and hung and ready to put on tomorrow for photos with the family!