Thursday, October 6, 2011

31 Days {Day 6}: Surviving



I've talked before about how when you are homeschooling with a baby and a toddler in the mix, sometimes it is simply about survival.  The same goes for everyday life with little ones, whether school enters the picture or not. 

I used to get caught up in the idea that I should get up early and be dressed before the kids got up.  I would feed them a hearty breakfast, play games and read books, and keep the television off all day.  The baby would nap in a crib and the toddler in his bed while I did the laundry and dishes in the afternoon.  Then we'd all freshen up and cook dinner for Daddy.  If my day didn't go as planned, I'd feel guilty and defeated or at the very least, feel like I didn't measure up to those other moms.

Of course, the reality is that when I tiptoe out of bed, the whole house wakes up.  Sometimes my kids spend the whole day in their pajamas and I serve too many goldfish and Pop Tarts. 
Sometimes I have to tell the 3-year-old to lay down fifteen times before he drifts off to sleep in the afternoon.  I wish I could say that the television stays off, but most days it does flicker to life and we have even been known to let The Wild Kratts count for science! 

Now this doesn't mean that we let everything go and throw the schedule out the window just because we have little ones in the house, but it does mean that I let go of my expectation that we must be perfect.  It means that when we're having a rough day, it is more important to me that we are happy and together than whether I served macaroni out of box. 

Pointing my children to the Lord doesn't require perfection. 

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for the wonderful encouragement. Sometimes its hard to accept the reality that at times it's just about surviving happily in our current life.

    By the way, most of the time I have to sit in the bedroom with my 3 year old to keep him from climbing all over his sisters at nap time (and to keep his little sister in her bed).

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  2. So true! Some days are about sticking with the main things and letting everything else go. It helps to decide what those main things should be up front... tough days are not the time to figure it out! :)

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  3. Love this post!!! I wrestle with this daily.

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