Putting One’s Home to Rest

It is at this hour of the day when I am on fumes…   Thus, when a mom wants to avoid a messy kitchen, why not write about said messy kitchen?!

If you were to teleport yourselves to my home at the moment, you would find atmospheric stillness–the kids are at rest, but in their wake, the wake of a long day of fun and play, you’d find tumult.  The kitchen has a frantic feel to it, a not-so-distant memory of the mother who hurriedly put together dinner without nary a thought of the later clean-up.  Yes, we ate on time, but no, I don’t even want to look at the aftermath.

The living room floor is strewn with the remainder of toys left from our quasi-clean (the ones I didn’t make them address on their way up the stairs…  “Grab 7 football helmets and place them in the bin!”)  There are throw pillows amidst and a random coat sitting on the step on its way up to the laundry room for a cleaning.  My purse is on the floor surrounded by various and sundry “important” items (like the empty vacuum cleaner bag holder I’ve saved to remember which kind we need when I’m out at the store).  Very important things, mind you.

When my husband walks through the door this evening (from a very long, tiring day at the office) I will pity his poor, tired eyes for what they will befall.  Home chaos is never fun to live among, nor is it the kind of peaceful greeting I hope to offer him at first glance.

And yet here I am, on fumes, on the computer… though I know conquering my nightly cleaning is the best gift I could give myself tomorrow.  It is the most wonderful stewardship of my droplets of energy remaining.  It will bless me over and over again in the morning hours and will breed new life come afternoon and evening again tomorrow.  It is essential.

Talking with a friend the other day, I commented to her how blessed we’ve been by our evening clean-ups; how they’ve been bits of God’s Grace to our family after adding a new baby.  I like to call it, “Getting Us Back to Status Quo.”  She called it something much more beautiful–“Putting One’s Home to Rest”.  Oh, it just makes me feel good saying it.  “Putting one’s home to rest.”  Don’t you feel at peace already?

God, you have granted me the blessings of life and family and treasure and health.  Help me cherish these things, over and over, again and again, night after night.  To rest I put you.  To rest I leave you.  To rest I greet you.