Grace rocks

Yesterday afternoon Ben plopped himself down on the couch and declared that he was going to watch cartoons. He had been up since 3am, fighting with both Adam and Anna all day, and I was worn out and tired of dealing with it all.

Katie and her fiancee took Adam to hang out with them for a while and I put on some praise and worship music and attempted to engage Ben and Anna's excess energy in something helpful. I knew it would have to be something they would consider fun and it would have to be something very physical.

"Ben, I like your idea of sitting and doing nothing. In fact, I've decided that I need to do that more often. The only problem is that Dad and I need to work a lot to be able to pay bills."

Ben shrugs his shoulders.

I continued, "But I have a plan. If I get rid of one of our bills I won't have to work so hard and I'll have more time to sit."

Ben grabs the remote and tries to ignore me.

"I have to pay the house payment and the heat bill. The only bill I think of that we can get rid of is the cable bill. We could save $35 a month if we went back to having just one channel."

Ben looks panicked.

"So let's practice for not having TV now. Turn it off."

Ben yells in protest.

"But if I get some help I might get my work done faster and I'd have more time to sit. That way we could keep cable. Does that sound like a good plan?"

I started taking the couch cushions off the couches (I knew this would get their attention). I gave Ben the vacuum and told him to take the hose and clean under the cushions. I gave Anna a rag and a spray bottle full of water and told her to wash the walls going up the stairs. I then started taking the cushion covers off the couch cushions.

We washed the covers in the washing machine and Ben and Anna helped me scrub the arms of the couches where dirty hands had left their marks. They really worked hard! When the cushion covers were done they had a blast helping me to stuff them again.

Then we cleaned their rooms! Once Anna's room was cleaned and her toybox organized, Anna and Ben spent about an hour playing in there together! We had disobeyed the day of rest commandment but experienced a miracle anyway. Grace rocks.