My Favorite Time of Day

It's funny how God works.  A few years ago if you had asked me what my favorite time of day was, I would most definitely would NOT have said "oh, right after dinner when I am cleaning the kitchen."  Tonight, however, I found myself at the kitchen sink, elbow deep in warm, sudsy water.  I finished up the dishes, and had just moved on to wiping down the table, counters, and stove top when I stopped and looked around at my family.  And then it hit me...this is my favorite time of the day!  As much as I grumble and complain about all the dirty dishes, when I looked around tonight, I felt nothing but gratitude for my life.  And while I've yet to figure out why, God is SO generous to me.  I sat there and looked at my family....Rachel was sitting quietly by the fridge, playing with her alphabet magnets; Andrew was building some kind of creation on the couch out of Tupperware; Natalie was sweetly helping her Daddy put together some new swivel chairs for the island in the kitchen; and Luke was peacefully sleeping in his baby chair.  I really wish I had pictures to post for all these lovely memories, but right about the time my sentiments welled up so much that I was starting to tear up, and I decided to run and get my camera, Rachel started pelting the alphabet magnets across the kitchen; Andrew saw me break out the camera and started jumping in circles around me asking "can I see?  can I see?  can I see?...."; Phil started fussing at Natalie for getting in the way; and then all three of the older kids started fighting over who got to sit in the bar stool.  Ah, well, back to life!  At least little Luke was still sleeping, and I found time to get this blog post in ;)  I did, however, manage to get this one picture of our evening:

Rach in our new bar stools =)