A Small Miracle about Cleaning Up and Maybe a Thing Starting...

Not entirely sure, but that title is possibly the longest ever.

Do y'all realize I've been writing in the little space of the internet for almost 8 years?

March will be eight years.

EIGHT.  YEARS.

Monday, I logged in to Instagram for my once a day check in.

(FB, you're still in timeout.)

(Sorry.)

(Not sorry.)

One of the authors I follow, Emily P. Freeman, shared a webinar she was hosting on writing a book proposal.  It was free.  And she's A.MAZ.ING.

I sat there.  Looking at that post.  Thinking about a webinar.  Which isn't a big thing except that IT'S A BIG THING.  Because writing a book?  That's the dream.

Which book, is the question.  There are several floating around up in the brain.  Some day, I'd like to land the plane and actually write one of those books.

The first step though.  That's a thing.  A thing I should actually DO.

So that webinar seemed like a good first step.

Somehow, I actually signed up.

Then I sat there thinking, this THING is happening at bedtime.

BED TIME.

Well.  What to do about that?

I sent off a quick text message to a precious prayer partner and fellow creative.  Briefly explaining the THING and how we needed to pray up pleasant, peaceful, participating children during dinner, clean up, bath and bed time.

And then I giggled.

Because SERIOUSLY.

I closed the phone and computer and went about doing the usual afternoon stuff.  Opting not to actually cook dinner but more let the kids graze and select, what I knew, would be healthy options for their meal.

(AK chose chicken salad, baby carrots and grape tomatoes.)

(Bless her.)

(Rhys selected cheese.)

(Nothing else.  Just cheese.)

(Is it wrong that I was actually happy?  Because it at least was some form of protein.  And not CHIPS.)

I knew I had to get the kids down before the webinar started.  That meant moving everything up an hour.  Dinner was easy-peasy (cheese gets eaten quickly).  But the kids had pulled out every toy they owned.  Clean up would be SUPER FUN.

But God.

About fifteen minutes before time to start cleaning up, the kids started whispering.  Plotting.  So precious.  I watched them scurry around and giggle.  Did I mention precious?

Ten minutes later, they said they had a surprise for me.

So exciting!  The suspense was killing me.

Turns out, they had completely cleaned up the playroom and each of their rooms.

ON TIME.

Then the loaded up into the bathtub.  And washed themselves.

God is good.

After all was said and done, they were tucked all snug as a bug in a rug with ten minutes to spare.

Y'all.

That left me to get all snug as a bug in a rug on the couch ready to learn how to write a book proposal.

For a book I don't even have a title for.

90 minutes later, I was energized and might have spent far too many minutes crying listening to Emily speak.  She's that good, y'all.

I slept approximately zero minutes that night.  Book writing in my head.  Ideas flowing.  Chapters.  Sentences.  Words.

Somewhere around 4:32 am, I just really wanted the words to stop.

Really.

So I'm not sure what all this means or where this will lead.  Other than I'm positive prayer gave me a blissful night of childless peace to dream.  And if that's all that comes from that night, it's okay.  

And if you have some extra space in your Instagram account, I'd highly recommend following Emily.  She's fabulous.