If I could just get some sleep. If I could just get my house organized. If the kids would quit wearing me out. These were all my conditions on my quiet time. For the last three years, I have begged, no, pleaded with God to just let my kids sleep at night and let me get my house organized to handle this crew and THEN I would have time for Him. Well, I think at least one child has gotten up every night for the past three years. No kidding. And only "one" is on a good night.
Then, there's the house. Erma Bombeck said that trying to clean house with kids around is like shoveling snow while it's still snowing. She wasn't kidding! I think I'm being successful in one room, only to come out and find that four tornado's have blown through the rest of the abode. I have been rigorously trying to clean out room by room, passing on the baby stuff and moving on into the next phase. This is no easy task with kids that have to go through everything I've tried to secretly remove from their rooms. Keeping up with just the "daily" stuff on top has been quite a challenge. But, I'm determined to get there.
My point to this story is that God has been telling me for three years to relax, enjoy the kids, and spend time with Him. Of course, my ideal plan would be so much better. So, for three years I have done it my way, with no success of course.
This Easter, I decided to change my path and follow His. On Easter, I spent time reading about the crucifixion and resurrection. My kids slept that night. The next day, I made sure I sat down and read. My kids had another night of sleep. Well, here we are at Thursday, and I did miss one night of reading because Eric and I had a "date" night. No kidding, my kids have slept every single night. I am so angry because if I had just listened in the first place, I probably wouldn't have these gigantic dark circles under my eyes. Why don't I listen the first time?? Believe me, I'm all ears and am going to do my best to follow instead of lead this dance.
On another note, here's a funny story from this week:
On Monday, I spent four hours working to get Pod's lessons all organized and added some extra's in there. I had the "perfect" homeschooling week planned. Well, Tuesday was so-so. She wasn't really thrilled, but participated anyway. Wednesday, Eric had gone to run an errand and I had all of the kids home. I tried to convince the little ones to watch an educational program :) so I could teach. They were refusing. Then, the doorbell rang. It was the yard guy who needed me to unlock the gate. While I was doing that, the phone rang and Pods went to answer it. It was Cristy. She told her that some guy came to the door and her mom left with him. Cristy was a bit jealous, oops, I meant confused. Of course, by that time three little men in pj's were taking to the street and two wiener dogs were finding out who had visited our mailbox recently. What a scene!
