Phew! We are halfway there before the first weekend since school resumed. Thanks to the alarm clock we have been able to crawl reluctantly out of bed again, even before the rooster crows – not that I have heard or seen any rooster in this concrete jungle that I live in; except on a plate – but this hardwired brain of this African child still remembers the cocks crow at dawn back in my fathers’ house.

I recall those days when we would wake up early, sweep the house with the broom made from palm fronds and bent to the waist, after which you dusted the furniture and ran several errands for my mother as she prepared the meal before you could get ready to go to school.

Things haven’t changed so much except the broom sweeping part – thank God for vacuum cleaners – I still wake up early to do the necessaries before we set off for the days business of school, work, after school etc.

It’s ironical that when I was back in my parents home, I thought that when I got married and had my kids, I would become what we refer to back home as ‘Thick Madam,’ who would roll around in bed and rise like an indolent Cleopatra with a retinue of handmaiden’s waiting to rub cocoa butter on my feet 😉

Well, the opposite of Thick Madam is the case. I hop out of bed, reluctantly resisting tossing the alarm clock out of the window whilst I hustle the children to get ready like a Sergeant Major as I run a mental list in my head of all that needs to be attended to for the day.

Today as I watched my trio file out after the runaround of getting ready, I acknowledge once again the beauty of having these blessed children. My house might be a bit messy most of the time but I wouldn’t have it differently. I appreciate the daily shebangs as these young souls grow, for I know that one day in the near future they will fly my coop, no longer littering the counter with breadcrumbs, dumping their stuff where it shouldn’t be and warming the house with their noise.

Who knows maybe in the near future, my house would look like the pages of an interior decor catalogue and I just might get to become a ‘Thick Madam,’ after all, but for now, it’s all wonderful and I am thankful to be like a Sergeant Major rising when the cock crows at dawn.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

There are several gratitude/thankful platforms in the blogosphere that you can tune into and get your ithankful going on. I can’t express in words the enormity of Joy and fulfilment that comes from having a heart of gratitude. Please check out Maria’s blog, Colline’s blog and Bernadette’s for thankful/gratitude challenges.

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