Thoughts as of Late

Some thoughts that I've been mulling over lately......

1. I went on a women's retreat last weekend.  An actual adult retreat where I was the participant, not the teacher. It was wonderful to an adult among other adults, albeit the youngest in the group.  I didn't have to cook or clean.  A left-handed woman sat to my right and "warned" me she was a lefty.  I told her as long as her food wasn't thrown at me, spit at me, spilled on me, and as long as she didn't have a tantrum during the meal that she was more than welcome to sit to my right.
2. I came home from the retreat exhausted but well rested in Jesus.  Monday was my first day back at being mommy.  My children welcomed me with the following -- Landon was up from 5am to 6am struggling to sleep due to a chest cold; while I was in the bathroom Landon coughed so hard he threw up all over the kitchen floor; Landon dropped a glass and it broke all over the kitchen floor; Jillian took a paper plate covered in syrup and put it on my head so I'd have a hat.....giant syrup-tangled-hair-knot was the result; and all of this happened before noon.  Normally I would have been a raving-lunatic-mommy after the first two disasters, but after a wonderful weekend break I was able to handle everything with grace, and love, and humor.  Thank you Jesus.
3. There have many Sundays we have sat in the chapel area of the two churches we've been attending.  The chapels serve as the cry-rooms.  I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but at the end of mass, I feel like hugging everyone in the room (and I'm not a "hugger").  But somehow, after spending an hour in small room with lighted candles, filled with other families with babies and toddlers and preschoolers that frequently announce "poop" and "icky boogie" and even "I'm tired of church!" I feel like we all survived a the equivalent of a parenting-marathon together.  Tolerating defiance, fidgeting, food throwing, lack of volume control, and tantrums, and everyone is still alive at the end of the hour.  Somehow, I feel like we forged a bond as a small group, we all survived, so did our children, and the rest of the sanctuary-sitting-parishioners were able to go through mass with minimal distractions.
4. Last night I spent 12:30am to 1am soothing Landon back to sleep from an earache, and then spent 2am to 5am tossing and turning with Jillian as she struggled to go back to sleep after a coughing-fit.  Yet, today I managed to get the children to happily clean the playroom, fold four loads of laundry, put the laundry away, read four books to the kids, and all in less than two hours!  I did even start cleaning the pile of dirty dishes, although you can't really tell by looking at it.  So I'm calling it quits for the day. More accomplished this morning than Monday and Tuesday combined, and on less sleep than usual.  Today I rocked at being a SAHM (stay at home mom), and will go to work this afternoon.  It's important for me to remember mornings like this, because all-too often mornings like I mentioned in #2 stay with me and make me think all my life is a disaster.
5. I love discovering the personalities and temperaments of my children.  I often say that we have to work really hard at helping Landon remember the rules.  When he remembers the rules before impulse takes over, he is an absolute rule follower; however, the challenge is him thinking about the rules before reacting on impulse.  I often say that we have to work hard to make Jillian think the rules are her idea.  She will have to see why the rules exist, and how they benefit her, before following them willingly.  (In this, she is much like me.)  So these are my prayers for my children....for Landon -- that he will learn and develop self-control......for Jillian -- that whatever she sets her mind to is also the will of God.
6. Landon seriously eats as much as I do.  He's not even four-years-old.  I likely will have to have a job until he is graduates college just to pay for groceries.  Seriously.  With the frequency that I need to eat, and the amount that Landon eats, I feel like food consumes my day, and planning meals consumes my thoughts.