Being Joyful Always

I've been having a hard time being joyful lately. I guess I'm feeling a bit burnt out, a bit stressed. And I've definitely been a little too snappy with the kids. I would like to be more gracious, but it's been hard. However, God wishes for us to "be joyful always." 1 Thessalonians 5:16. So yesterday, I set out to try and find some joy. I spent the day trying to enjoy my kiddos, and I observed that kids can find joy in so many simple thing. This is what I found:

I took the kids outside yesterday morning and enjoyed the beautiful weather. I watched the girls and Jacob pick dandelions and they were so joyous. Addie could pick flowers all day, she just loves any and all flowers. I went inside to find a bowl for the dandelions, and brought it out. Bella remembered that Jake had mentioned the other day that they could make dandelion wine for him. So Bella took the dandelions and mashed them into the water, over and over and over again. Then she made a note and taped it to the bowl: dandelion wine by Bella and Addie to daddy.

Will, my little munchkin, had a blast plopping himself down at the top of the driveway, letting a ball go, and watching it roll down to the garage door. Then he would get up, chase the ball, triumphantly grab the ball, and start all over again. He was so proud and so happy.

Since the weather was beautiful, Bella and I spent some of our school day on the front porch. Bella was to read part of Put Me in the Zoo for the first time, but she liked the story so much that she read through the whole book (instead of 1/3). She was so excited that she read a whole new book.

When we came inside, Bella set to work at the dining table on her math. Will, our newest troublemaker, climbed on top of the table and started to scribble in her book. I spent the next 30 minutes or so taking him off the table, only to turn around and watch him climb immediately back up. I found the experience exhausting and frustrating. He thought it was the coolest trick EVER. He was laughing the whole time, and grinning his most mischievous smile. *Sidenote: he also learned to climb the ladder onto Jacob's top bunk bed, which is unbelievably scary to me.

Playing hard outside = dirty kids, so that called for a mid-day bath. After scrubbing all the kids, Jacob kept asking for bubbles. So Will and the girls got out, I drained off the dirty water, and filled up a bubble bath for Jacob. He loves bubble baths. This kid thoroughly knows how to find the joy in a bubble bath, and he stayed in there almost an extra hour.

Another random Jacob-ism is his pure excitement over our van's automatic doors. Every time he attempts to open the door, Jake or I also happen to push the automatic door button. So Jacob thinks that he opens the door all by himself, which results in Jacob jumping up and down shouting, "I did it! I did it! I did it!" This happens every time that his attempts align with our door opening.

Last night was Awana night at church, and Addie wanted to wear her new birthday dress from Aunt Nic. The dress has a sort of tutu skirt attached, which is right up Addie's style alley. Well, she got compliments left and right on her dress, and was totally eating up the limelight. She kept lifting her Cubbies vest up so that the compliment giver could see her whole dress. She was full of joy.

Yesterday wasn't an extraordinary day. It was pretty routine around here, for the most part. And I still found myself frustrated with the kids at times, yelling more than I wished to, for sure. But I learned that joy can be found if you know how to look for it. I found a lot of joy in my children yesterday, and it made me find the little joys in my life, too.