Miracle Happen/Quality Time

Yesterday I spoke of an incident with my computer and how Word crashed as I tried to save my post I intended to do. Well, I turned on my computer this morning and when I opened word… There it was! My post! I didn’t have to retype anything! Don’t know what happened but there’s no doubt in my mind it was a small miracle from my Heavenly Father telling me, “You’re not alone. I’m aware of you and your needs, wants and desires and I am here. I watch out for you even when you forget that I am.”

I wonder why I didn’t think to pray when it happened yesterday. That’s one of those things I would have prayed for when I was on my mission or when I was a kid, and I guess I’ve forgotten how to pray for everything and how to have that full faith I once did. I’m working on it, and I know my faith is deepening again, but I still have a very long way to go.

We are NOT alone, and if God knows, watches and love the sparrow, how much more does he know, watch and love you?

I really need to remember this.

All that said, here is my initially intended post from yesterday. Though the stuff above is probably just as (if not more) important in the long run. So much for all of you today! God bless, and enjoy!

Quality time with the kids and hubby can be hard to come by at times, even though I’m a stay at home mom. Just because I’m home all day doesn’t mean I have a lot of time. The house needs to be cleaned, dishes need to be done, laundry must be washed and meals don’t cook themselves. While yes, things can be left undone and prayer and scriptures are a must, (see my post: Just One Of Those Days) the fact is things do need to be done eventually. And my personality does not do well unless I can at least most of the time keep up with things as they need doing.

This morning was a particularly trying morning as far as whining, arguing, fighting kids goes. But thankfully, I remembered to do family prayer and scriptures first thing. While it hasn’t helped my children in any magnificent way, it has at least helped me be more patient and remember that my littles have sensitive needs and to be more gentle and calm with them. That has made the difference.

Typically, we wake up bright and early my kids wake up at the butt crack of dawn and I drag myself out of bed and we go downstairs to watch some Disney Jr. Yes, this TV time is sadly essential for my children’s wellbeing as I am simply not the morning person I used to be. I know my limits and starting the day with a get-up-and-go attitude is nowhere in the cards, at least for another for another 6 years… minimum. So we watch some clean TV in the mornings while Mom’s eyes adjust to being open.

Our days start off with good intentions but always (sadly, within the first 30 minutes of being up) take a turn for the worse when one of the kiddos hits, punches, screams, fights or pushes one of their siblings. (HOLY COW kids! Can’t we all just get along?! Seriously!!!) And then I clean while they play and the day always just slips away a little at a time til Daddy is home, then we need to eat, bathe and prep for bed. Bedtime always take an eternity with a little child and when I have four kids under the age of 7 it takes two eternities. So quality time with kiddos seems a far cry from the norm.

Then I turn on Pinterest while my kids are down for quiet time, and I see all these ideas for quality time with the kids and I think… Wow, I’m horrible! I should be doing all these things with my kids! But time simply does not exist all the time to do it all!

Ask yourself this though: How many things have you pinned, re-pinned or liked on Pinterest that you have actually done? I rest my case. So I stopped beating myself up over it. They are there for good ideas and a quiet mommy moment to look and be inspired by. The end.

So my takeaway from all of this?

Do what you can! Take a moment to think before you shoe your child from the kitchen while doing the dishes. Grab the spray nozzle from the sink and have an impromptu water fight! The floor need to be mopped anyway. (I think I’ll do that this week.) Grab the duct tape and put some on your carpet for a fun game! (We did that this morning for a bit and it was so much fun! Picture and our rules found in this post from yesterday.) Take the moment running between rooms to change the laundry and tackle your little boy with a mini wrestle/tickle session closed with millions of kisses and the wonderful phrase, “Mom! STOP KISSING ME!”

I’ve come to the conclusion that quality and quantity do not EVER mean the same thing. Quality time is simply undivided attention for however short that moment might be. We don’t have to plan it out. It doesn’t have to be a long drawn out event. Just do it throughout the day in the moments between the chaos.

Stupid Computers!

So I did this thing this morning with my kids. We put colored duct tape on the floor and made a kind of board game thing out of it. It was very fun! Good quality time with my babies!

I took a picture and I had a beautiful thought about quality time with your kids… what it is and what it isn’t. How to achieve it and how to stop beating yourself up for not having time to do it! I sat down while my kids were resting from out workout on the game board to write my post all about it and after nine minutes of inspired and thoughtful non-stop typing, I went to click save on my computer before I posted the thing to my blog here.

Wouldn’t you know it? I clicked save and the program crashed… I start freaking out! It’s gone! I’ve typed my fingers off for nearly 10 minutes and now it’s gone because I saved it before copy/pasting it to blogger? Are you KIDDING ME!?

So I take a deep breath and think, someone must have a solution! Google to the rescue! Turns out someone had something to say on the matter.

There is a way to recover unsaved documents in MS Word 2010. Thank heaven! So I follow the handy dandy steps to find my document and it isn’t there. Sad face. I read on to find out that the auto save time is every ten minutes. 10! So since I tried to save it at just after 9 minutes instead, I’m out of luck. I changed the option from 10 minutes down to 2 minutes. Because, well, that’s just crap!

I digress…

Quality time with the kiddos will have to wait for another day when I find the energy and new motivation to retype what was lost and not to throw my computer out the window from the 2^nd story just to see what happens. Until then, here is our game and please find the rules below. Enjoy! :)

Indoor Tag or Swamp Monster!!!

Board Setup - Tape squares onto the floor, at least 2 more squares than people playing, more is fine but no less in a circular(ish) pattern. Then connect these squares with a straight piece of tape to connect them all. These squares are safe squares.

Tape another square just inside your circle unrecognizable shape and between 2 of the other squares. Then connect that square to the line closest to it. The Square inside the shape is the start square.

 Game Play – Decide who’s “it”. That person is the swamp monster. The other players each stand inside a different safe square. 2 players are never allowed to stand in the same safe square. The players walk on the line from square to square sporadically in any direction at any time during game play. Players must always be on the line or in a square.

Object – The swamp monster tries to tag a player while on the line or cause a player to fall off the line into the swamp (onto the unmarked floor). If this happens, that player is the new swamp monster. The previous swamp monster then runs to the start square and must immediately follow the line to a safe square. If the new swamp monster can tag the old swamp monster before he reaches a safe square the old swamp monster remains “it” and the other player can enter the nearest available safe square without the need to begin at “Start”.

Just One Of Those Days

I wrote this on Thursday in my moment of frustration: 


It's one of those days.
Not a bad day.
Not a particularly good day.
Just one of those days.

I've got stuff I need to do for my church calling, but I can't really do any of it yet - waiting on some things to come through from others.
I could make phone calls but my kids are so rowdy there's no way I would be able to hear anyone on the other end... Let alone have them hear me.
The dishes could use some cleaning but I'm already dead tired of cleaning the rest of the house and my rationalization that I've done enough cleaning in one day is winning.
Looking at my overly rowdy kids today, I think I should take them to the park to play! But I don't have a vehicle to do that... I guess we could walk... Only I forgot to get the stroller out before Daddy went to work.
I'm slightly dehydrated so my energy levels are low already anyways, so the park is out... and my head hurts just trying to figure out how I'd get 4 kids under age 7 to the park without any kind of wheels.
The kids ate well today.
We've played and laughed together.
But other than that, we haven't done much of anything.
We are all still in our pajamas for goodness sake (and nope... I haven't even put on my bra today - ask me how much I care about that).

We spent a couple days with my in-laws whom I love dearly and couldn't be happier that they came to visit... But it doesn't matter how relaxed a visit from family is, it takes a lot out of you!
We said goodbye to them this morning and while I was sad to see them go, a part of me was yelling, "yay for a LAZY DAY!"

I tried to tell that part of me to shut it. It didn't listen.

So here we are.

In pajamas at nearly 5pm...
...waiting for daddy to come home from work....
   ......so he can join in on the lazy day party....

While days like today don't happen all that often, and even though I have accomplished a lot, (my kids have been playing hard with me today, the house is clean, I got breakfast and lunch for the kids) I still feel like a failure today. No we didn't "get ready for the day". There are two loads of clean laundry waiting to out folded and out away and the dishes in the sink won't clean themselves for some reason. But does that mean I'm a failure?
I know it doesn't, so why do I feel like this?

It's simple really, I'm human.

Humanity is something that I think we tend to take for granted. We see ourselves as we think others see us.
In reality, if almost anyone came into my home right now, they would most likely see a lived in home that is relatively clean for having 4 kids there, happy children and a tied mommy who is doing a pretty good job. (Did I mention I haven't slept well the last few nights due to a teething toddler?)
Being human, however, I tend to be my own worst critic. If I knew no one would come over and I knew that I wouldn't have any company in the next 24 hours I would honestly probably be a lot more lenient toward myself today. But my husband will be home soon, and I have a friend coming over tomorrow morning to watch my kids bright and early so I can go to the temple.

I have an amazing husband who will come home soon and be grateful for watching over and caring for our children. He will be happy at how clean the house is (and to be completely honest, if it wasn't clean, he really wouldn't care) but I still worry about it. Tomorrow my friend would have the same attitude toward my house as she has toward her own, it's a house, and it's clean enough. Haha.
But I still worry.

These thoughts drive me crazy! I worry constantly over what others will think and what it comes down to really, is I worry that I don't think off it highly enough.

What kind of a person am I to not want to do the dishes?
How have you not even cared enough to get your kids or yourself dressed today?
What, you're too good to put clothes in the drawer?

All these things really don't matter. Because these thoughts are only Satan trying to bring me down. And for a minute today, he almost succeeded.

Because it's one of those days.
Not a bad day.
Not a particularly good day.
Just one of those days... And it's so hard! there's so much to do, I don't have any energy to do it and I really don't even care.
It would just be so much easier to give up.
Throw my hands up in the air and say, I QUIT!

But I have to remind myself, that yes it's one of those days.
Just one of those days.... Only one of those days! Just one!
Tomorrow will be different, could be worse, but most likely it'll be better.
Am I really gonna quit over one day?

Nope.
I'll keep on keepin' on.
Pressing forward
And fake it til I make it.

Why?
Because I've come WAY too far to quit because of just ONE stupid day...

Besides, we read constantly in the Book of Mormon, "It came to pass" it never came to stay.

Then, during conference, I had a moment of understanding that kind of defined what was really going on above:

Linda S. Reeves in her talk Saturday morning in General Conference April 2014 said, “It’s Ok if the house is a mess and the children are still in their pajamas and some responsibilities are left undone. The Only things that really need to be accomplished in the home are daily scripture study and prayer, and weekly family home evening.”

Like Sister Reeves, we try to do these things but they aren’t always the top priority. And, like her, amidst the chaos of everyday life they are sometimes neglected.

When we start focusing on these most important things, even if it means forgetting the chores, letting the kids run around in their pajamas and eating cold cereal for dinner and breakfast, after a while these practices will be more of a help and an enlightening tool that will allow the spirit in our homes and make all the chaos of daily life and home chores be lessened.

Stop beating yourself up over not keeping up with the dishes and letting your kids run around in pajamas. Focus on the better part and keep the spirit in your home. A bonus: the more the spirit is in your home the less you’ll feel guilty about the little things, because in the grand scheme of things, they won’t matter eternally.