They say "Necessity if the mother of invention." I say, "I'm the mother and by necessity we will try something new." I'm just full of new things this week. :O
First I'm feeding the boys ice cream for dinner and then I'm...calling for family rest time.
Wednesday night I didn't sleep well and I was tired and a little bit (or maybe a whole lot) crabby. I decided that I would lie down with *I* as he was the only one I worried about being downstairs without supervision. The others were involved with Legos and mind wasting activities which should have, in theory, kept them occupied for a few minutes.
No sooner did we get upstairs than the middle boys started bickering and running around and shrieking. (Teenager was in his room doing schoolwork...because you know you can't have the summer off, you have to have a bunch of reading and papers to do for the coming school year.)
So I went to the top of the stairs and said, "That's it. Everyone upstairs to their own beds for 45 minutes. (Because if you don't specify there's sure to be a party. ;) ) *I* and I snuggled up and fell asleep. I woke up about 45 minutes later with the 5 yo standing beside my bed to tell me what time it was. :) But they listened and I got some quiet and rest. :)
I have friends who do rest time for the family. I don't think I would do it every day and I am fairly certain it will not become a tradition in anyone's mind, not even mine. But yesterday, it worked.
Learning what works and what doesn't isn't a static, one shot thing. Life doesn't work that way either. So I am continuing to think outside the box, admittedly I'm still hanging out right on the edge. I cannot predict what a given day will bring, and I am learning to embrace that.
I could try to plan and control everything, but that leaves me frustrated and disheartened. Instead, I am learning to go with the flow. There's a fine line between "letting go and letting God" and becoming complacent. I guess the key is to focus on God and not on myself. I've found when I do that, the other stuff seems to work better...even when it's not my view of perfection or exactly what I envision...I can feel a lot more content where I am.
I pray that each of us can find rest and contentment in the times when we need it most.
-Peace
Amen! I know that I have found rest this week in the midst of our storm...since Mitch is gone, I'm praying he finds rest as well (but it doesn't sound like that's easy with 40 teenagers shooting the lids off empty plastic water bottles and very loud music in the background). :)
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