I have a wonderful, hyperactive, diagonal form of thinking and talking. My best of friends get this, and ride the roller coaster along with me. My darling husband tolerates it, and at times laughs at it. It is just how I am. It is all connected in my head, I promise. Warning two- sometimes I will explain to you how this is all connected. You might get it, you might think I am crazy. Either way you have been fairly warned. Warning three... I am a nerd and am not afraid of what you have to say about my thoughts. :) Now that you have been properly and fairly warned we can get this trolley movin...
About a month ago is when I had a great idea for a blog post. The events played out in my mind like a wonderfully made hollywood movie. This is going to be AWESOME! I am going to document this little project all month, at the end of the month we will have a masterpiece. Uh.... FAIL.
I continued taking pictures through the month of this project, but wasn't really documenting it like I had hoped for.
About a month ago, it was Saturday morning and I was going about my light Saturday morning chores. I really suck at the whole housewife thing, but really if I do a little bit every single day of my life, it keeps it slightly cleaner than a pig pen, and I can usually find what I need, unless it is my keys, or my phone, or wallet... So I was desperately plunging through a minimal amount of chores, with all three kids home. Nailing Jello to a tree would have been easier... I felt a bit like the windshield wipers on a car in the middle of a poop storm. Lucky me, I had a helper.
So here I am cleaning away, and my lovely toddler is quite quickly undoing everything I am working so hard to do. Where are my big children?? Aren't we raising them to be helpers, to contribute to the household, to be responsible?? NO!!!! They were in Kenzie's room, on the high bed where the tot cannot reach them, playing video games. Not playing so much as fighting. I could feel my inner tea kettle bubbling.... Have you seen Mom's Night Out yet? The "moment" the lead character refers to was quickly coming.
Who in this house is getting the glory? I am frustrated, the kids are fighting, the baby, well he just yells a lot of gibberish so we aren't sure where he weighs in on this. We are supposed to be living the good life. We are in this beautiful place, all together, and I feel like all I do is clean, and all they do is fight... tick tick tick....
That is it..... KA-B... wait... I am making a decision right now on how I am raising this family. I can sit down and cry. I can yell, or scream, or I can do something else. I hopped on the phone to by darling husband. I wanted to present a challenge to my family. No video games for the rest of the month. For the next month, my family would truly live together, help each other, and hopefully appreciate one another. Computers or other devices would only be used for communication or education purposes. James was on board. Later that day I presented the kids with my challenge. Kenzie cried and cried, Matthew tried to work out some loop holes in the system to see how he could still get his screen time in. William drooled and commented with something that may have been in German. I explained to the older kids that this was not a punishment, but that electronics were taking up too much of our lives, and that we were not treating each other the way we should. We spent a month focusing on family, creativity, and fun.
Here is the next time I attempted cleaning. Yeah the tot still makes me feel like I am trudging through quicksand, but God bless him for trying ;) This week I had even more help. Usually when my kids ask if they can help, it is because they want something, this time they were just having fun.
What did we learn as a family during this month? Well, have you ever seen the show Nanny 911? It is Never the kids fault on these shows, it is always some form of less than stellar parenting with a serious lack of boundaries. Yep. I was falling short as a mother. I am not beating myself up over this, there is no point. I am not perfect, neither are you, or that other guy over there that you are secretly envious of. We all fall short of the glory....
Glory... So who is supposed to be getting the glory? Are the kids supposed to fight and beg until they get their way, until they feel glorified in the eyes of their parents? Should the parents dominate the children in a way that makes them feel respectable? No. I'm glancing over at my children right now. They are playing the game of life. They are learning to appreciate each other. They are learning to entertain themselves and each other, and the value of contributing to their household.
1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God". During this month of growing, As a family we are talking more around the table. We give thanks for our meal, and spend time listening to each other. Not just our highs and lows, but the in betweens. Isn't that what life is about? Sharing with each other, loving each other, build each other up. I gave Makenzie a memory verse this month, a life verse if you will. " And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Coloassians 3:17). She memorized it quickly. Then we moved on to what does it mean. For now, I ask her to focus on who she is doing something for. Is it for herself, for others, or for God? When she has a fit, not a little one, but the big embarrassing kind where I hear the sirens of CPS coming for me, I remind her of her verse. In her words, and in her actions, she should be doing all in the name of The Lord, and be thankful.
2 Corinthians 4:15 "All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God." I am not going to go too far into the context of this, but just look at it. It is a beautiful thought. I'm going a little long here. If you haven't read 2 Corinthians before, you should. From there you could go plenty of places.
Well, my topics have only swayed slightly too and fro, and my bible verses were not completely random. At the end of the month, the kids got their games back. I have not allowed for us all to slip back into our old habits just yet. They are not guaranteed game time. They are reminded gently to be helpful, to be a gentleman, to act like a lady. Somewhere during the month, I made it halfway through my BOOM, I faltered. I didn't fail. I am learning to extend grace to my kids, to my husband. I'm not perfect, why should I expect them to be? So our adventure is not quite the paradise I envisioned, sometimes fun is too messy for me, or too loud for my husband. That's ok. THIS is an awesome life I am sharing with these people.
Just to show some of our adventure, and my kids with their awesome creativity for the month of September...
Mega blocks are always fun, and too big to swallow!
Of course mega blocks are not as cool as Bionicles
Little man did not enjoy the boom from the planes during the airshow, so we got creative to help him out
The big kids waited for the jets to fly over the playground
We went to two luaus in the month. Kenzie was picked from the audience to dance hula at the first one.
.She started Hula at school, and danced her first performance at the Island Family Christian Church's 60th Anniversary Celebration.
Aloha from the Niemi's
No comments:
Post a Comment