I live for moments like this:
(The Baby during a record THREE HOUR nap)
and this (The Boy mugging for the camera, guitar in hand, at a playdate).
But I feel the most guilt and frustration when I'm surrounded by crying children, a dirty house, and I just haven't got the energy to DEAL with it all. So I was quite happy to run across this quote a few weeks ago on Pinterest:
"We women have a lot to learn about simplifying our lives. We have to decide what is important and then move along at a pace that is comfortable for us. We have to develop the maturity to stop trying to prove something. We have to learn to be content with what we are."
That was said by the incomparable Marjorie Hinckley, whose biography I need to acquire (that may or may not be a Christmas gift hint...). I've printed it and posted it next to the recliner I sit in most, so that I can be reminded often that I'm allowed to move along at a pace that is comfortable for *me*. And that I should be gracious enough to allow others to move at their own pace. (Except for the children, of course. Them I get to chase around with a whip...).
With school starting up for Miss Bubbly and The Eldest, I'm anticipating a lot of changes and anxiety for a few weeks as we try to re-mold our lives around other people's schedules. And anxiety is energy-zapping for me, so I'm going to have to find ways to work around it while still keeping my home as a haven from our crazy, crazy world. But I'm more aware, now, of how that works, of the importance of my stewardship as a homemaker, and hopefully all the things I've been learning for the last 16 years, ever since I left my parents' home, will come together and I'll actually be able to pull it together.
(Us last year--November 2011. I'm looking forward to comparing with this year's photo.)
For all of us.
4 comments:
I love that quote! It is so true. I have had thoughts like that lately--I just have to be comfortable doing what *I* do. I think we all grow into our motherhood in degrees and being comfortable with where we are is part of that. Thanks!
Something has got to go. We think we can fit it all in, but there are laws of matter and of physics and time that say NO YOU CANNOT. Frankly, I prefer a creative mess to an immaculate house. Dishes can be cleaned when needed, but children change in an instant, and with them crossroads come up about every three minutes. If we aren't there, standing by the way and pointing - because there's laundry to be folded, or lamps to dust or dishes to do - we will have chosen the very short term over the very deeply significant. You want your house to be healthy - but that doesn't take too much. You want your children to be healthy in every way, and that takes everything.
You are doing a wonderful job. Despite the bum of a husband you have to drag around with you. ;)
Hm. That was a rude thing to say about my husband, since he's a hard-working provider and my best friend. You take that back!
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