Sometimes the sheer monotony of daily family life is enough to overwhelm me.  I am afraid to actually think about it too much.  Just imagine if I were to add up the number of times that I’m going to wash dishes or change diapers or fold clothes or make sandwiches.  Sometimes I can barely keep up with the day to day duties…the laundry piles up, the dishes beckon me, the toys need to be put away…again.  All in between changing diapers, nursing the baby, refilling water cups, and cooking meals.  It’s ordinary.  It’s mundane.  It never ends.  Literally.  Tomorrow will bring the same things.  Maybe I’ll tweak our schedule a little and serve breakfast at 9 instead of 8.  Maybe we’ll have an adventure of sorts….a trip to the grocery store, a visit to the aquarium.  But the bare bones are consistent.  Meals must be made and served.  Dishes must be cleaned.  Laundry washed.  Diapers changed.  Snacks served.  Hands washed.  Baths given.  Stories read. 

Yet in the midst of all this ordinariness, there is joy.  Joy in knowing that my stability provides the foundation these children need for peace and security.  Joy in knowing that I, alone, can comfort, cuddle and soothe whether it be a cut, a scrape, or a hurt ego.  Joy in knowing that each day, each ordinary moment forms a memory.  A memory that fills their hearts with love.  Joy in knowing that maybe, just maybe God will greet me someday with the words I long to hear, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”  And that joy is what gives me the strength to wake up each morning to face another ordinary day.