Don't you just love those moments as parents when you know your kids are wreaking havoc throughout the house, but they are having so much fun that you can't tell them to stop? Right now Arden and Maile are enthusiastically emptying their drawers and toy chest and putting all their clothes and belongings into baskets, which they are moving into another room. They are also gathering every pillow, blanket, sheet, and quilt they can find, with the intent of blockading their doorway so they can no longer sleep in their room. Their plan is to set up a tent in the study and sleep and live there.
I'm already having nightmares about the cleanup and it's not even night time.
Just overheard: Arden to Maile: "Mom says we have to clean this up by Saturday." (Their original plan was to leave it until they were 18.)
Maile: "How come?"
Arden: "I don't know, she's just weird that way."
Thursday, June 2, 2011
All That You Do...
Yesterday was one of those days where I was lucky I didn't strangle my children. It seemed like they were bickering with each other and whining at me most of the day. I was cranky too, because it was grocery shopping day and I don't particularly like shopping--I feel like I pretty much waste half my day. I know we need to eat though!
Usually when the kids are cranky, I pretty much assume that it's more or less my fault because I am not being creative or engaged enough with them. If I take time to sit down with them and really give them some good attention, they usually are just fine.
It occurred to me that part of my problem is that I try to do too much at the same time to the point where I don't give many important things in my life (my kids!) their due time and concentration before jumping to something else. I'm not saying multitasking is bad--Mom's HAVE to be able to do that--but I think maybe I do it too much.
I remember a particular family home evening my parents did back when I was a kid. My Dad had somehow sawed some coins in half, and Mom had torn a dollar in half. They stuck these "half" pieces of money on a poster with a little poem that read, "All that you do, do with your might. Things done in halves, are never done right." They were teaching us the importance of not doing "halfway" jobs. I think it applies to many things in life. If I'm going to take the time to do something, I need to devote my whole attention at that moment to what I'm doing, rather then jumping from thing to thing, or thinking of all the other things I could be doing.
Usually when the kids are cranky, I pretty much assume that it's more or less my fault because I am not being creative or engaged enough with them. If I take time to sit down with them and really give them some good attention, they usually are just fine.
It occurred to me that part of my problem is that I try to do too much at the same time to the point where I don't give many important things in my life (my kids!) their due time and concentration before jumping to something else. I'm not saying multitasking is bad--Mom's HAVE to be able to do that--but I think maybe I do it too much.
I remember a particular family home evening my parents did back when I was a kid. My Dad had somehow sawed some coins in half, and Mom had torn a dollar in half. They stuck these "half" pieces of money on a poster with a little poem that read, "All that you do, do with your might. Things done in halves, are never done right." They were teaching us the importance of not doing "halfway" jobs. I think it applies to many things in life. If I'm going to take the time to do something, I need to devote my whole attention at that moment to what I'm doing, rather then jumping from thing to thing, or thinking of all the other things I could be doing.
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