A Mom's Gotta Do What a Mom's Gotta Do

Do you ever feel like you are constantly yelling/nagging/pleading with your kids to clean their room? If you do, you are not alone. With having 4 kids, our house could be spotless. The counters are free of dishes, the laundry is folded (I wish I could say put away but that would be lying), the floors are swept, and the toys are put away. And then the kids get home. I am going to risk sounding like my mom and dad right now and compare them to little tornadoes that leave trails of destruction everywhere they go. -Mom, stop laughing, its not funny.- 

So here's my dilemma: I know they've had a long day at school. I know that they are probably exhausted and need to be able to relax for a little while. So I put off the cleaning until later and, well, we all know that later never comes and what is left are rooms that are layered a few inches high with toys and clothes (and smell a little funny if I'm being honest :)

Then the thought of cleaning is overwhelming to them AND me, so we avoid it even more as the mess gets even worse until we have a get together or a babysitter coming and we are FORCED to clean. By that time, it takes a good part of the day to get it done and we are at each other's throats before it is finished.

Today, I had a bit of an epiphany. I am a mom, I am allowed to have epiphanies about cleaning ;) I thought to myself, "I bet I could make it a little fun. And if it is a little fun then they would be more apt to do it and I would be less apt to nag." Ok, so it's not rocket science, but when you are living life 100 miles an hour (see previous blog) you don't always have time for creative ideas. There's a mom shouting AMEN right now I can just feel it! 

So I decided to play on the competitive nature of my boys (and the little boy I babysit) and make it a contest. I assigned each boy a color (for example, Kasey had blue because he was wearing a blue shirt, Keagen had red because he was wearing red and Drew had yellow). They each stood at the bottom of the stairs and when I said "go!" they each ran upstairs to their room and picked up only that color. When they were done they had to run back downstairs. I timed each one separately with my cell phone's stopwatch and after each one was done I went upstairs to check and make sure all of that specific color was picked up. If they missed a toy I would add a second to their time. The winner got to pick out a snack and a movie for all of them.

And you know what? It worked! They each had a blast! Their room isn't spotless BUT you can see the floor. Kasey, the oldest boy, said to my surprise, "we should do this more often!" So there you go, a creative idea to get the room at least a little picked up without nagging or pleading.

Just thought I would share this idea with my blog peeps. Have a great day!

Here are the boys:  Kasey who is giving the thumbs up, Keagen who is pretending to be a baseball player and Drew who is giving a great big hug to his bestest friend!

Until next time...



Just One of Those Days

Do you ever have those days when everything seems like it going wrong? If you answered "no" I would like to gently ask you to come back down to earth. Because the reality is we ALL have those days. Now, you may not be as overly dramatic as I am (I would NEVER admit that to someone face to face) and think that the bad days are not so bad. Honestly, I am usually an optimistic person. The skies are always blue, the cup is half full, yada yada yada. But when I am having one of those days I am just downright pessimistic.

Every little thing that could go wrong, does. For example, this last Tuesday was our last day of Bible Study. I was running a tad late, which immediately stressed me out. I had to go to church set up all the tables, decorations, table settings, coffee, kids stuff, and the list goes on and on. As I was arranging the tables and chairs I smashed the tips of my fingers between two of the chairs. Can you say OUCH?! I persevered though! I kept going (while still running behind and stressing out a little more by the second). But things kept going wrong. Not huge things; just little snags that  became huge tears in my self-confidence and self-composure. Pretty soon I was a walking geyser ready to explode into tears at any second. And admittedly I did....a couple of times. Miraculously Bible Study went as planned and the women really enjoyed the morning as I had hoped.

I wish I could blame my emotional roller coaster on this one issue that was beyond my control....or better yet on being hormonal, but I couldn't. The only reason I was stressed to the point of tears was ME. I wanted to be superwoman! You know with the mask, knee high boots and accessorizing cape? Just kidding. I wanted to be the kind of superwoman that thinks she can do all things and be all things for everyone. I was so wrapped up in doing, going, making, baking, talking, drawing, cheering, cooking, and don't forget the cleaning (whew that's a lot of verbs!) that I forgot to take a few moments to rest, slowdown, and regroup.

I heard once that we need to set up margins in our lives. Consider a piece of notebook paper for a second. You know those red lines on both sides of the paper that my 2nd grader chooses to ignore? Those are margins. Those margins are set up to tell us when to start and when to stop. It forces us to leave a little room on the paper for blank space. Imagine what it would look like if those lines weren't there. It would look like my daughters written reports, with sentences running from edge to edge with no room on either side. It would look very crowded and very messy. That's what our lives look like when we don't have margins. When we don't set up those red lines in our personal lives we become busy people who don't know when to start or stop. Our lives become chaotic and stressed to the max leaving less and less room for blank space (aka, rest, relaxation, and regrouping). We just go, go, go and pray that we remember everything we have committed to along the way.



I realized something else that my lack of margins hurt: my ability to reach out to the people in my life and to nurture the relationships that God has blessed me with. I was so busy that I didn't have time for lunch with a friend or a quick phone call with my Grandma. I couldn't slow down enough to encourage people that needed encouraging or pray for people that needed prayer. In essence my doing for everyone became very selfish. I was wrapped up in me and what I needed to do at that moment.

I learned something these last couple of weeks. I may not be able to control the business of the day, but I can set up margins. I can say no to things that will make my plate too full. I don't have to be superwoman (capes aren't very flattering anyway) and most of all I need to take each day one step at a time and remember to breathe.

I will leave you with a very cute, very funny, very encouraging song that makes me smile every time...you could say this could be my anthem. Enjoy!

This is the Stuff

Until next time....



This is totally what I would look like if I was Superwoman ;)