~Monty Roberts
I read this quote today and immediately thought about my typical Sunday mornings. Steve often leaves the house before the rest of us are up, in order to get to church early, set out his music, pray, get prepared for the service etc. This is all understandable and necessary. However, it leaves me to get the kids and myself prepared for church all on my own. Again, this is just the way it is, and that's ok. Many, many moms do this every day. ..... It's just that I don't always do it, um.... gracefully. ;o)
I'm getting so much better at stocking my purse, writing out the offering check, and setting out our clothes the night before. We even are getting pretty good at being home on Saturday evenings with plenty of time to bathe the kids so I don't have to do it Sunday mornings (that one took a lot of effort for us, as we so easily succumb to the "go go go" mentality, and we are often not home 'til late on the weekends!)....
Alas, when the sky is still dark and I faintly feel Steve slip out of bed on Sunday mornings, my typical response is to roll on to my stomach and flatten my face against the mattress, intent on capturing twenty more delicious minutes of sleep before I hit the day running.
(Um, yeah... I think it would serve me well to drag my sleepy body out of bed simultaneously with Steve... I'm pretty sure it would help me avoid even needing to write this post in the first place... I'll be working on that one!!)
...Anyway, now that you've got the background to my simple story, here's the point I was getting at....
...It rarely fails that I find myself sitting on the living room floor on those mornings, trying to wrangle a squirmy, sleepy kid (yes, they can be both of those things at once, can't they?!) with peanut butter on their face, wash cloth in one of my hands, toothbrush in the other. Much whining and pleading take place. And the kids do the same. Haha. ;o)
"Please hurry!" I often exclaim, "We are going to be late," as I forcibly struggle to tidy up Seth and Haddie against their wills. Maybe it's some law of physics (or at least of parenting) that the more I try to hurry us, and the more intensely I communicate how the minutes until we need to be seated in church are dwindling, the more the kids balk at getting ready....
Hmmmm... what was that one again?....
"If you act like you've only got fifteen minutes, it'll take all day. Act like you've got all day and it'll take fifteen minutes."
Yep. I see the truth in that one and I believe I'll be trying to put it into practice at our place!
(I found it a bit humorous that I found this quote in my mom's horse club newsletter! :o) I guess some truths are universal, whether they be regarding interactions between humans and horses or parents and children!!)
3 comments:
I love that! I understand the feeling, as I often have to get Colin up and out the door early in the morning for preschool, MOPs or for play dates. He is NOT a morning person (nor am I) and it's always a struggle. I've found, however, that if I'm out of bed with my husband at 6am, things move a lot more smoothly, as I'm not worried about getting myself AND him ready on time - because I'm already ready to go when he wakes up!
Love this post :)
I feel your pain. Getting 3 kids ready for church alone sometimes puts me in a very non-worship mood. I've found that acting as though we have all the time in the world IS the best way to get all 3 in the car. When I say, "We're going to be late!" and rush around like a maniac, I think they all sit down and stop doing anything. Know you're not alone in the struggle!
I know the feeling. My hubby leaves early since he runs sound and we now have an early service and I'm always left with most of the kids. If I can get one done quickly he'll take one with him! It takes us about 3.5 hours to get ready for church on Sunday mornings but often we have company for lunch so that's including cleaning, prepping lunch stuff, and getting the house presentable. This week I was so infuriated because right when I was going to walk out the door I was filling a sippy and Justus whipped around and bumped me, spilling milk all over him, me, the clean kitchen, the floor, etc. It never fails! It's like satan wants to make it as hard as possible for families to go to church!
I agree with you that it takes a lot of stress off if you prepare the night before. I also keep a little bag in the van filled with things for the kids to do in church. Just keeping it in the van saves me the step of having to remember it each week.
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