A Blessed Day

I'm feeling especially blessed today.  It's been such a wonderful winter day full of all the things I love.  Our little southern city got a blanketing of snow which is an unusual treat for this area.  Somewhere between 6 to 8 inches fell and my sweet babes were out of their beds extra early getting layered up to go out and play.  How did they know?!  I got up at 5:30 this morning and looked outside to find the heaviest down pouring of snow.  It was gorgeous!  Around 6 a.m. I contemplated going to wake them up so they could see but decided I liked the quiet of the house way too much to give it up.  Very soon they sprung out of bed,  all 5 at the same time, as if they knew already.  In no time they were dressed, chores done, breakfast cleaned up, and ready to go outside.  If only they moved at that lightning speed every morning.  I made Olivia a spray bottle to take outside and used red and blue food coloring to make her favorite color, purple.  She went right to work squirting snow.  The boys tried their hand at sledding and building a fort and of course ended up in a snowball fight.  What fun!  I let the kids have hot chocolate and popcorn for lunch.  This is certainly not in keeping with our plans to eat healthier in 2011 but it was the perfect lunch for a day like today.  It blessed my heart to see them cuddled up in quilts sipping cocoa and munching on popcorn.  The fact that they were exhausted made me even happier.  I love when the kids are worn out tired.  

Yes, my laundry pile grew tremendously, and yes, the floors are a mess, and yes, the dog is a mess (did I mention our little dog went out to play too?  She just jumped around everywhere since the snow piled up higher than her.) but I don't care about the messes or the laundry today.  I feel blessed to be the mom of these 5 sweet babes and blessed to be able to watch them enjoy a special winter day.  It's nap time now and the house will be really quiet as little ones sleep and older ones read and I'll be somewhere in between reading and sleeping.  I'm extra thankful to God for the blessings He has bestowed on me today.  He is so good to me!