Morning Rush Hour

Helping my children get ready for school is an exercise of patience each day. Most days no one wants to get out bed, they eat too slow, they NEVER remember to brush, they take forever to get dressed, they can't find their backpacks; coats; gloves; hats; and boots, and then the older kids don't want to wear gloves (or any warm apparel) and its sub-zero temperatures, Sam is too tired for seminary, showers last 45 minutes instead of 10, no socks are folded so they can't find a pair (my fault), someone can't find where they put their homework, someone else is printing off their homework from last night and the printer is too slow, or the best is when Ike realizes that one of his brothers is wearing a similar school football or other sports team shirt (true embarrassment!), the faithful 'he did it first' discussion, and throughout all of this consist ant chaos I am constantly giving updates as to how many minutes are left before the bus is at their stop. Every once in a while there is a small diversion from the norm--like what happened last week with Brig. On Friday as Brigham was getting dressed I noticed that his socks were--let's just say they looked like they could walk on their own. How I had not noticed this earlier is mystery and embarrassment I do not want to discuss. Anyway, I did not ask him how long he'd been wearing them but if he had been wearing them all week...the answer was yes! Apparently, this is his was of speeding up the morning routine. He is the only one of our children that understands if he gets ready fast that there will be more time to play outside. Obviously, this comes with its own health hazards--I threw the socks out! The reason I am sharing this is to contrast it with this morning...it was beautiful. We have 3 buses that leave at 3 very different times and each group of kids managed to get out the door with time to spare--no one was grouchy--in fact everyone was happy and the elementary kids were even ready early. What a great Friday! This was a 'tender mercy' in the life of a mother and a fantastic way to begin the day! Only our Father in Heaven can work such miracles.