“It’s been a long week”

Today I think I bit off more than I could chew. Michael and I have been discussing simplifying our lives and decluttering our home. I decided to start with the girls’ rooms upstairs...12 hours later and we’ve finally made some progress! 

Maybe it was that the kids were stir crazy and maybe it was that we put them on tasks all day but boy they were very difficult today. I lost my cool a few times. So did Michael. Today we did not finish well. 

We ended up asking for forgiveness and trying to push through. We have had a wonderful summer together. I think we are finally starting to wish school would start. 24/7 with the same playmates has proved to be challenging. The kids need their own anything. Their own space, their own learning environment, their own friendships etc. 

I took a few minutes to myself and laid in my bed before starting the bedtime routine with the kids. “Just speak to me.” That was all I could muster up today. As I sat down with Michael for a few minutes of quiet he said, “wow. It’s been a tough week.” I said, “babe. It’s Monday.” We got a good laugh out of that. 

In a last ditch effort to try to salvage my parenting, I tucked the kids in and read the daily devotional to them. I chuckled as I started reading the August 6th devotional. “Children are a gift from the Lord. Psalm 127:3” 

Sucker punch. Ugh. Conviction sets in. Yes Lord, these are your gifts. These are the children you have gifted to us. They require so much of my daily mental capacity. They require to be fed on what seems to be an hourly basis. They require constant oversight. They require constant mediation. They take so much of me. But they are a gift. Thank you for the gift of my kids.  You are teaching me so much through them. I’m tired and overwhelmed tonight but as I told the children as I kissed their heads, “today was tough but tomorrow we get to start over again. You are a gift my sweet one. And getting to start over with you tomorrow is a gift too!”