Saturday afternoon/evening: Emma and I went over to pick Kaity up at 3:00 this afternoon. We had already been to her soccer game and told her that our #1 mission today was to get her room cleaned up and organized ... THEN we could go sledding! I naively told both Emma and Kaity that the clean-up would only take perhaps 15 minutes--easy/peasy!
I do not have any pictures of Kaity's room (the one she has at Jesse's) to show to you. Actually, the last time I had seen her room (only a few weeks ago), it just needed a minor clean-up job. I had no idea what a few weeks could do to a room with Kaity as it's resident and the girls next door as inside playmates! Yikes.
It was difficult to know WHERE to begin ... but we did! We just took her room a corner at a time--starting with the floor. We put dirty laundry in the baskets for washing. We put trash in the already overflowing trash container in her room (we emptied it and filled it x2). We picked up the toys on the floor and finally ... we could SEE the floor once again. At that point, we vacuumed and made the carpeting pretty once again.
But the hard part was to come. As we were clearing her floor, we were taking items out and putting them on the dining room table outside Kaity's room. There was also a box and two grocery bags filled to the tippy top with ... stuff to be sorted.
PLUS ... we tried to open her dresser drawers to see what was living (!!) inside of them and discovered lots of interesting items.
At this point, we had been at it for about 90 minutes and were no where NEAR to figuring out to do with half of the stuff. We decided on a compromise. We would take a break, go sledding, eat dinner at my house, take a 30 minute rest over at my place, and then head back to finish Kaity's room. Everyone was pleased with that plan.
Here are the only pictures I took of the girls on the sledding hill:
It was TOO COLD for this grandma outside, so I stayed hunkered inside of the car and watched all of their sledding antics. They had such a blast together. They stayed on the hill until the sun set an hour later. I ordered a small JET's pizza and we picked it up on the way to my place and enjoyed every single bite.
We returned and finished up Kaity's room. WOW. We were exhausted ... but everything was organized! We threw away a ton of stuff that Kaity didn't want any longer. We filled two bags to take over to Good Will too. Her room looked beautiful when we left.
Here's the BEST part: Cleaning can be kind of a drag, and Kaity really really REALLY does not like to do it. And Emma? She is super organized ... but she is not always EASY to be with. However, today was the nearest to perfect time the three of us have ever had together. I'm not kidding! There was laughter and joking! We played music the whole time! We were silly! Emma was super helpful and KIND to Kaity. Kaity stayed pretty upbeat during the whole process. In my heart, as I looked at these girls that I love so much, I KNEW God was sending me a special blessing ... He was showing me HIS GOODNESS in so many ways during the day: at Kaity's soccer game, in the woods with Emma, and cleaning Kaity's room. It just could not have been a nicer day.
Emma and I have often talked about God's promises for the future--especially because there have been many difficult situations that have entered Emma's life. I have tried to encourage her about eternity and the place God is preparing for us and HOW GREAT all of that will be. But she will counter with: "What about now, grandma?" "Life is hard NOW." Yes. Yes it is very hard.
In my Genesis Bible study this week, we were asked to look up a few references about God's Word giving us HOPE that He is working on our behalf, even through dark times, and that His promises are true no matter what. I came across these verses in Psalm 27.13-14:
"I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of God in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart, and wait for the LORD."
I had goosebumps when I read that--"the land of the living" is NOW, PRESENT day. I immediately thought of Emma and I was SO encouraged. I think this is why God gave me such a wonderful Saturday with my girls. He wanted to reinforce His truth--Yes, He is GOOD, every day, right now where I live.
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