Love Letters

Today repairs on our house required that we vacate the premises. Not for the first time I was relieved that my parents live right behind me and were gracious enough to give us the run of their place. We packed up schoolbooks for four kids, snacks and lunch things, knitting, baby carriers, art supplies, read alouds. All the things that a day with my crew requires - and made our way over.

 Although we are doing our normal things, the change of location is actually a welcome reprieve from another frigid winter day inside, battling boredom and cabin fever. The big kids are looking forward to a game of "life" after school is over. The littles helped me mix up a batch of sugar cookies for Valentines. The baby is blessedly napping after a long night and I'm just happy to be here. Playing house in my childhood home where my seven kids remind me so much of what it was like back then. It's almost like peeking into the past, except I'm no longer one of those kids. Entering my mother's world, I get a birds eye view of what her days were like - and gain a new appreciation for my own. 

For all the scuffles and noise and, goodness, humanity that we mamas put up with - we are the witnesses to such glory. We witness fledgling humans figuring out just how this life thing works in the best school there is: family. Our work is merely the crafting of home, which is the cultivating of love. And whether that takes place in my mamas sprawling 200 year old Greek Rivival home or in my little cape cod right behind, the work is the same. Echoing God's heart means putting people first, always. Welcoming each one like the love letter they are into our lives. 

Valentine's is around the corner and we're cutting out paper hearts and I'm wondering at how the Creator knew how to craft a mamas heart to expand and expand and expand endlessly, able to wrap around each and every one of these gifts. 

This day, these precious ones. All glory. All grace.