A Little Busy

We've been pretty busy around these parts again!  Between preschool, Kindermusik, playgroup, MOPS, drop-in daycare days, teaching Sunday school and keeping an extra little guy on Thursdays, it is getting to that overwhelming time of year.  That time of year when I know everything is getting closer to an end, but that end still seems a little ways off!  And my boys aren't even in elementary school yet!

It's the time of year when I look at all the commitments I have made throughout the school year and start trying to figure out which ones I want to keep, which ones I need to cut back on, and which ones I need to step back from all together.  I don't feel as though I'm being the best mom I can be when I find myself rushing the boys out the door each morning, onto the next event that is meant to socialize them when all they really want to do is stay and play with their cars!  This is something at which I need to be better. Luckily, our schedule usually calls for Wednesdays and Fridays to be "PJ days" where I allow the boys to stay in their pajamas until lunch (or maybe later) and we spend the morning hanging around the house, spending time together without the usual hurry of other mornings.

Making homemade vanilla ice cream in a bag

And because I sometimes feel as though my time to my other commitments takes over the time for my family, I've been having to make a conscience effort to find ways to involve them in everyday activities that I would usually just do to get done! Cooper, for example, LOVES helping me put clothes over into the dryer.  Would it be MUCH faster for me to do it on my own...yes!  Does he feel a complete sense of accomplishment helping me put one sock at a time in...you bet! And while I usually find myself trying to hurry him along so I can move onto cleaning the bathroom, I should be savoring the one-on-one time with him as I know one day, I'll be washing his stinky socks alone!

One of the commitments I have tried to keep with which keeps getting pushed back is my quiet, alone time in the morning to read my Bible and spend some much needed time in prayer. I am no longer the morning person I was when I was teaching and getting up at 5am. Now those extra minutes in bed in the morning are much coveted ones of quiet and sleep.  However, the days in which I do get up and have this time seem to be the better ones.  They are the ones where I don't get as frustrated when I am filling a sippy cup for the fourth time, or when a glass of spilled milk is definitely not something to be cried over...just cleaned up!

So I guess all of this is just to say that I realize I need to reprioritize and I hope that by putting it down in words, someone will help keep me accountable!