The same ol' same ol'....

Mornings seem to all start out the same.  Alarm goes off and one leg at a time pull myself out of the warm bed.  Everything is dark as I run my hand along the L shaped hallway, floors creaking, to the top of the hardwood staircase.  It's fifteen steps to the bottom and I wonder how many times I've counted with arm loads of laundry and children. 

The living room gives way to soft light from the old gray wash tub full of pine greens sitting on the front porch, still lit up with twinkle lights.  I move quietly picking up toys, folding the crocheted afghans Grandma made, straightening pillows and grabbing the cup and dirty socks that are sitting next to my husbands chair. 

Every morning it's pretty much the same.

This morning I smiled as I made my round and grabbed that cup and dirty ol' socks, and my heart is full.  Keith and I have been married 15 years and there was a time in our marriage that the sight of that cup and those dirty socks made my skin crawl!  Man I would get so mad at him.  Here I was picking up after (then) three children plus daycare children and even after I ASKED him to please put his cup in the sink and socks in the laundry.  He didn't.  He just wouldn't!

My blood would boil.

One time I let his dirty socks pile up for a week!  It was a pretty big pile and his sock drawer was getting low...but guess who ended up putting them in the laundry?  Yep.  Me, because every time I would see them I would get red hot mad.

It didn't seem to bother him much and in his defense I don't think he was trying to make me mad.  I'll have to ask if he ever chuckled over my two year old temper tantrums.  {and...maybe...still chuckles over them?}

At the age of 28, my husband joined the military.  It was a time of deep growth for our family.  And being a new Christian I knew I had to do work in my heart before he left for Iraq.  So though I still grumbled inside (and it still really bothered me) I picked them up without grumbling or complaint.  What meaning did those things really have anyway?

Keith was gone for eighteen months and though I had family around me along with our children...it was one of the loneliest times of my life.  I missed him so much and would give anything to have that cup and those dirty socks sitting by the chair.  My heart ached for it.

It sounds silly but I would even put some of his clothes in the laundry just so I could fold them.

Sometimes we can get all hung up and fussy over the simple stuff and drug down over the same ol' same ol', but it's all in our perspective.  I am so very blessed to pick up that cup and those dirty old socks {again} this morning.  I pray for decade's of more mornings that start just the same!