The Grass Withers, The Flowers Fade...

a different cup gets used every time she needs a drink...

dinner dishes stay on the stove...

there is no "docking station" and mail piles up...

 dinner bowls, spoons, veggie bucket, and crumbs...stay where they're forgotten...

the dishes and laundry are NEVER done!...

newspapers and notebooks and Bibles and books get left where they were abandoned 

(after somebody was in dire need of...something...)

toys used, toys forgotten...toys left in the open but unseen...

so there they stay...

busy minds forget what was the previous minutes infatuation...

so batteries die and buttons get broken...

organized chaos (or a lost cause) make cleaning a task to be done later...someday...

so carpets rarely get vacuumed and floors rarely get scrubbed...

the air gets cool, the leaves fall, a rake can't do the job, and a the job is never done...

paint peels and maintenance-free deck is not really maintenance-free...

(a power-washer may do the job, but we'll have to wait until spring...)

siding puckers, bugs burrow and hide, rodents dig holes, 

dirt accumulates, weeds grow, branches fall, and vines take over...

I wish I could say these things never bother me...

I've realized that the most upset I ever get with my kids

(other than their gross display of selfishness and self-absorption that we all are guilty of...)

is when they interrupt me and what I am trying to do or get done.

How selfish can I be?

I'm trying to change that.

Nothing I am doing is more important than making sure they know I am available and that I care.

If I don't pay attention...they will demand it in other ways.

I have been heard saying that I don't like beginning something that I can't finish.

Some tasks I just don't start knowing this about myself.

Guiding my children will never be "done," for their needs are plenty.

So cleaning will have to wait...

I am made for so much more than a clean house.

"The voice said, "Cry out!" 

And he said, "What shall I cry?"

"All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness 

is like the flower of the field.  

The grass withers, the flower fades, 

Because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; 

Surely the people are grass.  

The grass withers, the flower fades, 

But the word of our God stands forever."

Isaiah 40:6-8