Thank God for Kids

Note:
This is the mushiest post I will ever write.
Bear with me, and I will go back to my usual sarcasm tomorrow.
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Growing up in my family, Christmas music consisted of Willie Nelson, John Denver, and The Oak Ridge Boys - to name a few. Oh, my sister and I complained about our parents subjecting us to those country classics.  We wanted to listen to modern Christmas songs, from Band Aid, and The Pogues "Fairy Tale in New York".  (Okay, they're not modern NOW..)  But secretly, my favorite Christmas album was The Oak Ridge Boys, and particularly the song "Thank God For Kids".  I think I liked it so much because it was reassuring to me.  If The Oakridge Boys liked kids, then surely my Mom and Dad liked me!  Even if I did swim in ponds, and refused to wear dresses...

Now that I have kids of my own, I really, really love that song. Because now I know the meaning behind it.

But today was, well, one of those days.  As you may know, we built our house about a year and a half ago.  It cost quite a bit of money, and took a lot of work to get it the way we wanted it.  We are in the house honeymoon period, and more than a little house proud.

However, despite our best efforts to keep our home clean, and to decorate, and DIY -  today I noticed the following:

The carpet in the living room has little drip stains dribbled from one end to the other (presumably milk).  There's a hole in one of the bedroom walls (another Tonka truck incident).  The kids bathroom has a water damaged baseboard, because the shower curtain is constantly left open.  Big A just had to pull out a toilet because someone thought it was okay to flush a q-tip.  There are air-soft "bullets" all over the yard, and Nerf bullets all over the house.  There's a half finished go-cart in the hedge row. The cabinet housing the trash, has something resembling spaghetti sauce permanently dripping down the inside of the door.  There are grimy fingerprints on every light switch and faucet handle.... And I could go on.

C'mon guys! This is our beautiful new home!!!

And then I heard that song today.  And I got a little weepy.

Because that song made me think - despite all that dirt and mess and naughtiness, thank God for kids.  I could live in a perfectly clean home, with no clutter and no mess.  But I'd rather be listening to my kids belly laugh, and run around chasing one another in the evenings.  I'd rather have them building forts in the living room, and helping me make meatballs in the kitchen. Regardless of dribbles and grime.

So that's the way it is.  "And we'd all live in a quiet house with-out Big Bird or Mickey Mouse and Kool Aid on the couch...Thank God for kids."

(*Now, had I won the power-ball, the kids would have their own house.  With a maid.)

 (Listen to Thank God for Kids here.)

(Or buy it: Christmas With The Oak Ridge Boys)