I had a terrible, awful, no good, very bad day yesterday. I went to bed at 8:18 PM, totally spent.
Good thing she has other people to help when my arms wear out
But, as the evening unfolded, I realized that many things went right.
- Everyone got their schoolwork done (with the exception of the younger kids’ history lesson)
- The house was reasonably and clean laundry got done
- I served a hot, healthy meal for dinner
- The 5 penny trick worked. The girls behaved for the rest of the day and into the next
- I studied the Bible with Julien
- The kids put on a lovely show with several Bible charades for family worship
- I got a blog post done and solved a problem with my site’s hosting account
- And, my youngest is just simply adorable, despite being a paragon of neediness at the moment
I lay in bed recounting the day’s events to my husband. I told him how frustrating it was to feel so ineffective with my own children. I’m worried about Sadie’s allergies, whether she’s getting enough nutrition and calories with so many restrictions on her, and why she was still having some problems with sleep and behavior despite the changes I’ve made. I told him that one of the things I wanted most was for my days with my children to be enjoyable, not to consist of one disciplinary action after another. I wanted there to be room for conversation and enjoying one another’s company, and how impossible that was when people didn’t do what they were supposed to do. And how I resented the children who are behaving well getting the short end of the stick when it comes to my attention.
Of course, I don’t always feel this way. It was just a bad day, and needed to be put to bed.
The next day (today) went swimmingly well. Everyone got along beautifully, my 13 year old cooked breakfast, and everyone got cranking on their schoolwork and were finished by 1 PM.
There are still 5 pennies on the counter.
Yay for a good day! hugs!