At the store today a lady saw me with Charles in the grocery cart, Thomas in the seat, and Daniel asleep in the baby wrap. She smiled and very sweetly asked, "Do you ever slow down?" I pondered the truth of her statement and reflectively smiled back, "You aren't kidding!"
I don't pity myself. I'm not bemoaning any lack of "me" time, but I do want to do this better. I have lists and chores and schedules, but I'm having a hard time getting the house in order and spending adequate time with the boys. The schedule I have written out is for an ideal world. Here in the real world the baby doesn't always sleep for 1.5 hours and the boys may get hungry before noon, and I might forget my grocery list when I go to the store and then have to make another trip...so how do I give myself a little grace? How do I choose what to let go?
...and will somebody tell me: why does the boy's bathroom smell like pee within two days of cleaning it? what are they doing in there? more importantly, where are they going?
on that note, here are a few pics of our fun weekend excursion...
We took a trip to Apple Hill with my parents, aunt, and brother's family. Oh the fun we had! The kids got to do a pony ride, and hay maze, and they each picked a pumpkin.
Aubrey Megan, my beautiful niece, on her pony
Charles and Aunt Alisha
Thomas picks his pumpkin
Grammy shows Daniel the kids in the maze. 
3 comments:
ah well, you know i completely feel like i'm dropping the ball in the organization department, the 'staying on top of it' deparment, the memory department. So I sympathize with you. i know the feeling. as always with new babies, it is all so temporary. it changes so quickly, and soon we will be in a different stage, perhaps keeping up with the housework [oh please it can only get better from here] but still without our memory [sigh]. but you ask such a huge question, the fine line of letting it go, giving ourselves the grace, while *trying harder* to get some structure so that things feel more sane. anyway, you are a great mother, and i would always rather be WITH my kids than cleaning up after my kids (and i know you feel the same). i love seeing the pics of the boys at Apple Hill.
xoxo
my advice (not always well followed by myself), is to do the minimum needed for hygiene and sanity, and get help for the rest or let it go. i.e.--don't clean like your mother in law is coming over (no offense to any mil's out there), but enough so you can find clean underwear in the morning. your baby isn't even old enough for you to quit counting in weeks yet!! a few more exclamation points!!! so give yourself some grace. and then give yourself some more grace. my experience is that it gets better after the first...YEAR. so, you might as well give yourself the grace now, instead of making yourself crazy for the next 42 weeks.
(don't tell chris i told you this...he will laugh me out of house and home. i'm not so great at my own advice, but that doesn't make it not TRUE. i definitely understand the struggle.) ;)
thanks for your encouragement girls! It's nice to just know that there's someone who's there/been there.
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