Lately, we’ve been completely out of our normal routine because of Christmas break. I’m sure you can relate. And as much as I love the break from all the normal hard work, I think it’s TIME TO GET BACK TO A NORMAL SCHEDULE! The kids are fighting more and making me have way too many conversations like this:

“Elias, do you love Asa?” (yes)

“Asa, do you love Elias?” (yes)

“Justus, do you love Elias?” (yes)….and so on through all the boys, you get the picture…

“Okay, can we treat one another with brotherly love? Instead of acting like you don’t even like each other? And also, can you just stop TOUCHING each other?”

I confess to you here and now that my parenting skills have kind of slipped during this “time off” from the normal. What is that about? It seems that when I’m on track with everything else going on (keeping the school work going, chores, meals, etc) I’m a little more on the ball with crowd control and character training too. But since we’re just kind of bumming around playing legos and reading in our jammies until one o’clock (am or pm, take your pick), I can’t seem to parent like I need to. 

And so, I’ve been a little grumpy at times with the boys lately (it would help if they would just stop TOUCHING each other). And I feel bad about it because while it’s understandable that I would get frustrated at their bad behavior, maybe I could get them busy playing a game or make them vacuum or something. Instead of being grouchy at them. 

Well, school starts up again on Monday. I think we’re all ready. Never before have so many people been excited to have a math assignment!

(I reserve the right to blog on Tuesday about needing a break from our routine…)

Remember reading about how I want to try to say “yes” more often to the boys’ requests?!? Not the more sugar, more toys, more stuff requests…the fun things to do with mom requests. Well, today, when I asked Elias where  he wanted to do his reading lesson, he told me that he would like to do it on his bed. No problem, right? Except that his bed is the TOP BUNK! I started to say no and then thought, oh why not? 

It was fun being up there actually. We were well on our way with the reading lesson when Asa and Justus came in with math questions. They couldn’t believe I was up there and thought it was HILARIOUS that Mommy had climbed to the top bunk. Justus wanted to know how I would get down…I told him “probably the same way I got up: the ladder.” Guess he thought I might be stuck up there forever and that he might not get his lunch today. 

So, Asa and Justus snapped a few pictures of this memorable moment and after 11 shots, here’s one without my head cut off.

 

Please be sure to take note of the messy, unmade beds while you laugh at how funny I look on the top bunk of Elias’ bed!

I wonder what I’m going to say “yes” to tomorrow?!

Because we’ve been on the subject of parenting lately, I thought I would show you these pictures. Hope you get a chuckle out of this! I also pray your day is a blessed one with your family and certainly that your day is better than this mama duck’s.

Today, as I was putting away laundry, I came across the dresser of one of my sons. It reminded me that I had written a little article about how frustrated we can get as Mamas trying so hard to get ahead (or find our heads) in our day to day tasks while we train our children. So I snapped a picture of my son’s dresser after he put away his clean laundry and pulled up the article for you to read. Hope it encourages you, or if nothing else, maybe you’ll start praying more for me!   

Hang in there, Mama.

Well, I’m wondering if your days look anything like mine. Today, I worked through about five loads of laundry, then had the boys come in and put away their clothes. Now, when I called them in to get their shirts to put in their shirt drawer, I promise that the shirts are neatly folded on my bed in nice piles. I really do not hand them a big wad of shirts and say, “Please go stuff these in your drawer as quickly as possible. If you can’t get them all to fit, just leave the drawer hanging open with the wad of shirts sticking out.” So how is it then, that when I go into their rooms with the shirt that fell out of their pile on the way to their dresser that I find a wad sticking out, when I know that I just folded those very shirts mere seconds ago? It happens every time. 

In between loads of laundry, I promise that I have also fed the children. So why is it that right after lunch (when I am folding another load of clothes) that my five year old comes in to say, “Mama, I’m hungry.” Of course the seven year old hears him, perks up, and says, “Hmm, me too.” 

Do you ever feel like you can’t win? Like you can never get ahead? Like no matter how hard you work and how much you do, it’s never enough to stay on top of everything? 

I try. I really do. So why is it that I have more dirty plates beside the sink after I wash the dishes than when I started? Doesn’t even sound like it’s scientifically possible (or would that be mathematically?).

And let’s not even begin to talk about the bathroom. You remember don’t you, that I have four boys? I might as well just go back to the kitchen to work on those dishes and pretend I don’t have a bathroom to clean. Doesn’t seem to matter anyway- if you know what I mean. And don’t tell me about the “put cheerios in the toilet to give ‘em something to aim at. Wouldn’t work, and I don’t need soggy cheerios stuck to the bottom of the toilet seat. 

Well, maybe your day doesn’t look much like mine. Or maybe you’re just so tired from trying to keep up that you don’t even remember what your day looked like today. (Huh? I’m sorry, were you talking to me?) 

All I know is that even though I can’t seem to get everything done that I would like to – and the spiders really like my house because they can build a web and settle in for a while before my broom has time to find it’s way to the corner to knock it out – I’m happy. God is good and I’m really happy. I have four beautiful children and a wonderful husband to take care of. 

So, hang in there, Mama. We’ll keep working on training the kids to take the extra 30 seconds to put their laundry away neatly. We’ll find a snack for the 14th time today if they’re hungry. Someday, we’ll even get an uninterrupted night of sleep. (What might that be like?)

In the meantime, we’ll just remember that mamas all over the world are standing at the sink wondering if there really is an end to the dirty dishes. We’ll remember that wads of clean clothes are stuffed in drawers all over the world as mamas sigh and mumble to themselves that they might as well not even go to the trouble of folding them at all. And we’ll remember that God is good to have given us the privilege of being a mama. And then we’ll smile and grab the toilet brush and go clean, again.

Well, yesterday was quite a day, let me tell you.

First, we woke up to snow and ice and it took Matt quite a while to scrape all the layers off of the van so that we could go to church. Sometime during that time, Matt received a phone call asking him if he could fill in to teach a class, as the regular teacher was sick. So, as he scraped, he thought through Mark chapter 10 so he could enlighten the adult Bible class he was now to teach.

We finally scrambled to get everyone out the door, already a little behind schedule. By the way, we also have a house guest, which did NOT add to the stress of the morning, but the information comes in handy for the next turn of events. So, we pile into the van and we’re two blocks down the road and Asa says suddenly, “Hey, where’s Justus?”

Yeah, you got it. We had left one of our kids at home. This was not one of our finer parenting moments.

Poor guy. He had been looking for his gloves. We said, “Get in the van.” We thought everyone got in the van. Our house guest was occupying what normally was his seat in the van, so nobody really recognized he was missing. We quickly turned around (as quickly as you can turn around on icy roads, that is). I ran into the house to an angry and sad little boy and hugged and hugged him and told him how sorry we were and that we thought he was with us and how brave he was and all those things a mother says when she leaves her child at home alone.

Justus forgave us and is okay by the way. He even laughed about it with us last night.

So, we got to church and of course since Matt was teaching the class and we were by this time 10 minutes late, we got to confess our parenting shortcomings with about 40 other parents. They got quite a kick out of our story. Glad we could provide some humor.

The next two hours were uneventful, which is saying a lot for getting four little boys to sit quietly and worship.

After church we turned the boys loose to play while we visited a while. Next thing you know, here comes Asa (our 10 year old) with blood all over his head and face. (You know how head wounds bleed.)  He had slipped on the ice on the sidewalk and landed on his head. Once we got the worst of the blood washed off, we found that the source was a nice big gash on his eyebrow. He looked as white as a sheet and his stomach was woozy. (I looked and felt fairly the same.) 

So, you can guess where we spent our Sunday afternoon. Apparently we weren’t the first to go to the ER because of the ice. We actually ran into some friends while we were there. Great place to deepen relationships, the ER.

Anyway, four stitches later, we were back home and all okay. Asa felt much better after the whole thing was over. Dreading it was far worse than going through it I think. Here’s our trooper. (uh, we left the bandaid on so you wouldn’t also feel woozy)

So, as you can see, our day wasn’t quite a relaxing one. We appreciate the reminders that the joy of parenting comes in many different forms (many, many different forms). We also appreciate knowing that when we fail or when tough things happen, we aren’t doing this parenting thing alone. Thank you God, we are not doing this alone.