Pleasures of the Poor

Last night all the grandkids and all of the married daughters spent the night at our less than 2000 sq. ft. house. It was chaotic. We are a loud and dramatic bunch with everyone talking over each other, kids screaming with delight or screaming because they are mad - in any case, always screaming. At one point, I asked Kayla, my oldest granddaughter if she wanted to go for a walk. We went (ahhhh, a little peace and quiet) with two of the moms and walked a couple of miles along the greenbelt.


The kids all slept together in the one living area that we have. Our four daughters filled up both the upstairs rooms. Downstairs, we pushed back the sofa, moved the coffee table, inflated a couple of air mattresses, gathered pillows and read books and told a Bible story (Samson and Delilah was a real thought provoker and scandalized my daughters, especially when I concluded the story with "And they all died" - btw, the kids slept just fine, thank you very much). It was crowded and loud and wiggly and perfect. It reminded me a lot of when my cousins and I would stay at each others' homes in the summer and we would all sleep in the same room. We just enjoyed being together.

When I went to bed, I thought about how I was glad, at least for that moment, that we didn't have a big house with separate bedrooms for all the kids.