Simple Happiness

I had a great time with the children today.  It wasn’t football.  It wasn’t computer games.  It was something so simple, yet so fulfilling.  I read to them some of the posts filed under My Boys from this blog and showed them the pictures that went along with those posts.  They loved listening to what was written about them; those nonsensical, mischievous and funny things they did to each other, to me, to themselves.  We were all rolling with laughter!  It was so easy to be happy today.  And it didn’t end just here.

 

Right after dinner, I was washing the dishes in the kitchen.  I had asked them to help clear the table and do bits of chores here and there.  Enzian wanted to help with the dishes, I was hesitant… no, the dishes won’t be clean, they will still be soapy, he will waste too much water, the kitchen will be wet, in the end, I will have more to do.  He asked again when I was still struggling with my thoughts.  Then I decided, what the heck, just let him wash and I will rinse the detergent off.  If they are still oily, I just give back to him to re-wash.  So we re-arranged our positions and started washing and rinsing.  After a few dishes, I realized we made such a great team, Enzian and I.  I also discovered he was very thorough with his cleaning!  I was singing with joy!  He was beaming with pride!  Washing dishes can be so much fun! 

 

Johann brought his step-stool and wanted to chip in too, but there wasn’t enough space nor were there more work that would require his help.  He was so insistent that I had to think of a chore simple enough for him to handle.  Luckily, there were a few cups on the table that needed to be cleared, so he was off to perform his assigned task.  I was happy he took the cups one at a time, that would buy me more time, I thought, when he was done, he too, was beaming with pride and wanted to help more!  As the draining basket piled higher, I had to make space for more washed dishes, Johann came in handy as I had him to help remove the water bottles to another draining basket, making sure each bottle is turned upside-down to aid quicker drying.

 

The work was completed in half the time.  We went to my room, spent some time talking nonsense before they were all sent off to bed.

 

It was quite an evening!