I finally hit it. I hit the critical point where trying to be supermom simply becomes overwhelming. It doesn't matter if you are a stay at home mom, a working mom, a military mom or a civilian mom. We all have a level where our full cup of patience spills and then breaks. My patience was gone and I was starting to have a stinky attitude towards everything and everyone. One afternoon my son, Matthew, came up and said, "Look mom! Look what I got for you!".
I'm not sure what it was about the flower but it got me thinking. Matthew was focused on me for at least 1 second while he was picking it and look how excited he was. Maybe I would be happier if I stopped and narrowed my focus back to my children.
Call it what you want; yelling for mercy, screaming uncle, tapping out, giving up, or whatever but something had to give. I realized I can't do it all nor do I want to try. So I made a list of things I could do to help bring my focus back to Nicholas and Matthew. #1. Do not bring work home: no one benefits from this. I try to get work done, ignore my kids, and then get frustrated when they keep interrupting.
#2. Lighten up: so what if Matthew isn't always playing with an educational toy or learning how to write his name. So what if Nicholas is more interested in eating a flower than learning how to walk.
Just don't take his flower away.
♥I had such a great time watching him. This little man makes me laugh aloud everyday ♥
And it's OK if he wants to play with a DVD as long as it came from Target's $5 bin.
#3. Accept the fact that my house looks like Toys R Us: I quit trying to put the toys up in their proper place every night. It's spring, we're not using the fireplace, let's just store them there. I mean really. They're just going to be dragged back out anyways.
Yes, that's the elf on the shelf. Somehow he's become a permanent part of our living room decor.
#4. Enjoy every moment of my weekend: I finally stopped cramming so many activities into Saturday and Sunday. We usually have so much stuff going on that I get frustrated because we're always running late. Matthew's friend had a birthday party and it was so nice to go and enjoy it without being hard pressed for time.
#5. When I don't know what to say, just laugh: if I'm speechless that means my emotions could go either way. Laughter or anger, laughter or anger. Time to start choosing laughter.
Like when Matthew decided to get into a fight with a bottle of Anti-Monkey Butt diaper powder after 10pm on a work night.
Yeah, I had to keep mentally telling myself to laugh as I was cleaning up the mess. Although technically is was my fault. I should have been paying more attention to Matthew and not Army Wives.
#6. Constantly remind myself that they're still little kids: it's so easy to get frustrated when they don't stay focused, make a mess eating, throw their tantrums, are slow getting dressed or keeping up with you in a store. When it comes to Matthew, I catch myself forgetting that he is only 4 years old. So every time I start to feel myself lose it, I think about my list. I'm sure it probably sounds lame to others but it's been working pretty well so far. I feel like I'm more enjoyable to be around. And thank goodness for that! I really didn't want my husband to come home to a grouchy wife.
That's right. Jacob's home! We were fortunate that this deployment was so short. I know there will be a time in the future where he will have to go again and probably for a long period of time. But for now our family is together and we are enjoying every moment.
It was rainy and cold the day Jacob's flight came in, but Matthew refused to wait in the warm car. He was too small to see around the cars so he wanted to go wait on the curb where he would have a better view. Of course the baby had to wait in the car. And then we saw Jacob's van coming around the curb
It was wonderful to watch my 2 boys hug
And the feeling of having my family back together is too wonderful for words.
With my new attitude and family back together, I can honestly say that life is good!