Priorities

Life is busy.

The house is messy.

The stack of "important" paperwork is piling up.

I put it all aside and enjoyed a wonderful morning with my kids.

We had to get up early to take The Referee to work. We went to our homeschool co-op classes. Then, we bought lunch at the McDonald's drive-thru. Not a very typical day or meal situation, but we made the most of it and enjoyed many stories and laughs. It was a great "off" day, if I do say so myself.

A friend posted on Facebook about feeling overwhelmed. One of her friends posted a portion of a poem that caught my eye. So, I Google'd it. It really fit my day....and my priorities right now...

Song for a Fifth Child

By Ruth Hulburt Hamilton, 1958

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth

empty the dustpan, poison the moth,

hang out the washing and butter the bread,

sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue

(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo

but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?

(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,

for children grow up,

as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.