Over Committing

As you may well know it is easy to over commit ourselves. Stay at home moms tend to be viewed as those who have more time on their hands than working moms. I don't know what makes people think this, but I can tell you it is not true. As I fall exhausted into bed each evening I wonder at God's plan of having only 24 hours in the day, and think that a bonus day every now and then would be greatly welcomed.

I decided years ago that I was way too busy, and although I enjoyed many of the activities I was involved in, there were just too many. I have since cut down our family commitments to those things we truly want to do, and we work hard to not let that get out of control.

So it is with great surprise that I have found myself in the car everyday for the past week and a half, shuttling my family to summer activities. I am not quite sure how it got out of hand so quickly. I have signed my children up for bowling with www.kidsbowlfree.com, and we are bowling three times a week. The older two are taking skating lessons on Saturday mornings, and my oldest, started tennis lessons today. Not to mention our trips to the farmers market, trips to the beach, Cub Scouts, and the local parks and zoos, we have become way too busy.
While this schedule is temporary it can still be overwhelming, so here are a few tips to keeping the peace in the family while out and about.

~ Many of these activities are for my older children, so I allow the younger ones to pack their own bag of toys to bring along. I limit it to 5-10 items or books that fit in their own little backpack, that they are responsible to carry.

~ Bring snacks!

~ Involve the kids in each errand or stop. We play math games and spelling games while shopping or waiting for food to arrive in a restaurant.

~ My children love to spend their own money and so they are rewarded with stops to the Dollar Store or thrift store to shop. These stops occur near the end of the outings and only if behavior was good.

~ Most of all, know your limitations. I know that if this schedule was to last into the fall I would not be happy. Knowing there is an end in sight and that we are enjoying this brief busyness seems worthwhile.

~ Lastly, evaluate your activity level often. It can easily become overcrowded without your realizing it has happened. This often leads to a cranky family. When this happens choose which activities you want to keep and which you need to cut from the schedule. Make a plan to spend more time together as a family at home.

Friday's Funny

On Friday I'll post a funny story about motherhood, this week's is about my oldest daughter who is now nine.

When she was two her room was decorated in Pooh Bear and we had many Pooh toys, as well as bath toys and shampoo. I love Winnie the Pooh and had found Pooh Bear honey at the grocery store one day. It was in a small bottle with a cute picture of Pooh and his friends on the front.
I walked into the kitchen one day to find that my daughter had found this bottle of honey and had poured it in her hair. She thought it was shampoo and when I found her she had most of the bottle dripping down her head and onto her face. "I'm washing" she said. It was an adorable mess!

Lesson I learned: Do not buy food that looks like a toy or soap!

Laundry

I Thes. 5:18 says, "In everything give thanks..."

Those words came to me this evening as I was in the laundry room on my sixth load of laundry for the day. I don't like laundry, in fact I practically loathe it. But the fact that I have five children means that I also have a ton of laundry. I am always trying to figure out ways of making my laundry life easier. I have tried to hire someone to come in once a week to help, I have looked into wash and fold, and a laundry delivery service, but it either didn't work out or was too expensive.

So tonight as I was washing, drying and folding, the words "give thanks" came to mind. Give thanks that you have a family to wear the clothes. Be thankful for the fun that caused them to get dirty. Be thankful for the quiet time of folding laundry at 11pm and the opportunity to pray and thank the Lord for each of my children as I fold their little shirts and shorts.

We can choose to just get through a chore that we don't enjoy or we can look for joy in it and opportunity. Tonight my laundry taught me about thankfulness.

Dear Father,
Thank you for the small gifts in our lives that You use to show us how to be thankful for what You have given us. This evening I lift up my family. I thank you for the reminders of the fun we have and the love we share. May I continue to see the blessings that surround me each and everyday.