wonderfulness

today was one of those truly rare days when i felt that i had done my job as a wife, mother, and homemaker. shocking.

now, let's all take a moment to note that the children were at mother's day out for approximately 5 hours out of their day. but that does not deter from the fact that we, together, had a great day.

there was hardly any yelling and i think only one moment where i threw my hands in the air and said, "forget it! i'm going home!"

yes... a rarity indeed.

some background for this is that i constantly feel like i need to find a balance between housework and motherhood. between cleanliness and quality time. between sanity and fun. i struggle with this when there's dirty dishes overflowing in the sink but gabe asks me, "mommy can you read me a story?" i struggle with this when there is not a square inch of floor to be seen but monkey is holding his hands up in the air to be held.

but today! today was different. today the dishes were done and the floor was clean before the children got home from school. we ate snacks, explored toys that were new to us (i organized a toy exchange and received our new toys today!), rode bikes to the park, ate popcorn, wrestled (my wrestling name is large marge), ate a warm, home-cooked meal, took a bath, folded more clothes, read books, baked cookies, and prayed for each child before tucking them into bed.

amazed?

it's ok. you can take a moment.

needless to say, i have my feet propped up right now and am enjoying the glow of my Christmas tree while i take deep breaths.

there are a total of...maybe 5 days in my whole life... where i have accomplished all i wanted and more. today was #6.
God had His hand on this day!

this all came from reading an article this morning that was about being late. the writer, who was constantly tardy, improved her timeliness by not throwing extra stuff into the mix at the last minute. example? don't try to stop by the bank before dropping off the kids at school if you left the house 5 minutes after you were supposed to. i, unlike the writer, am a prompt person, but when we're at home, i throw random tasks into the mix all the time. we're doing great. playing. laughing. then i decide we MUST clean out the toy box. this minute. we just gotta. it's a toy box overflow emergency. forget about children starving in uganda. our toy box is a situation deserving our full attention. from there it all goes down hill. this makes us late to eat lunch, late to nap, late to our afternoon appointment...and eventually i get frustrated that we're having to rush around like chickens with our heads cut off.

so i tried something different today. i thought about what needed to be done, i tried to get it all done, and then what didn't get done, i will do later. we didn't rush to get to the park... we strolled. we didn't need to hurry to get home to cook dinner, i already had it covered. (crock pots are amazing). so my new personal motto: planning is close to perfection. ;) my personal motto was going to be: pickles smell for days so wash your hands, but this new motto has a nice flow to it.