Every Morning I Need Two Things

Last week I was at the grocery store with the girls and this young mom came up to me and says, "seriously, how do you grocery shop with three kids? I only have one (there was a darling 18 month old boy in her cart) and I can barely manage even getting to the grocery store." 

There were about 25 responses that came to mind, but the top three were:

1) It gets easier, I promise. You're in a really tough stage right now, but it will pass.  Having one kiddo was THE HARDEST phase for me.  Going from no kids to one was insanely difficult.  So I decided to just add to the chaos and have a few more, and each time it's hard, but don't discredit how hard one is...IT IS HARD!!! 

2) I heard a Jim Gaffigan (super funny comedian) line pop into my head, "What's it like to have 4 kids.  Well, imagine you are drowning and then someone hands you a baby." I didn't want to terrify the poor girl so I kept that to myself.

3) Tick Tacs and stickers work wonders, also there are free cookies at the bakery counter.

But what I ended up saying was:

"Oh sweetheart, you caught us at a great moment on a good day and we are only in the produce isle. There are about 14 more isles for this to go south. Also, there are free cookies at the bakery counter"

So then yesterday happened. Yesterday was one of those days where I didn't even get the bat off my shoulder.  I mean, no lie, I was still in my pj's at 6:00 pm when Phil came home.  The only difference from the time he left to the time he came home was that now they were covered with spit up. I considered it a win that I had dinner on the counter (we didn't even make it to the table).

As I was helping Aven was sharpie off of her hands and legs after she had dumped out ALL of my business cards, I thought, "it would be really funny if that lady could see me right now, then she would know for SURE what a fluke it was when she saw me at the grocery store." So I had this idea that today I would document the entire normal day in photos. 

While I had intended for my little project to simply be humorous, I actually taught myself an extremely simple, but profound lesson instead.

Here's how it went:

I woke up around 5:00 am browsed social media, made my grocery list and my to do list.

About an hour later I OPENED MY "SHE READS TRUTH" APP AND READ THE DAILY DEVOTIONAL.  I am working through the Fruits of the Spirit Study and ahhh, today was Self Control.  I probably need to tattoo that to my forehead. Then I spent a little time praying.

Got up at 6:15 when my alarm went off.  Got myself dressed. It's running day...booo!

Had a date with my pump...ahhh motherhood (most mornings I actually sit down and feed Holland, but she wasn't awake this morning, so I wasn't about to wake a sleeping baby).

Made the girls' breakfast.  Waited for the meltdown from Aven.  This morning it wasn't because of her clothes, or the sheer fact that she was awake, but it was because she wanted to eat the sausages frozen, not cooked.  Thankfully today this meltdown only lasted about 15 seconds.

Emrie came down in her nightgown, so I sent her back up to get dressed. 

Made my smoothy (YUM, it tastes like a vacation because of the pineapple, so I usually close my eyes for about 30 seconds while I drink it and pretend that the screaming in the background are actually the waves and I can almost smell the salt in the air. Then I open my eyes and it's back to reality).

Cleaned up from breakfast (the girls hate the sound of me cleaning the blender:)

Piled everyone in the bathroom for tooth brushing and hair fixing.  Usually this cues another meltdown from Aven when I tell her we don't have enough time for a braid, just a ponytail.  Today we had no meltdown!

Run back upstairs to grab socks, then the dang battle with the tennis shoes began (I'm about to buy Velcro slip ons because getting their feet into these converse is ridiculous!)

Have the girls grab the rest of their breakfast and book bags and go get in the car while I get Holland up, changed and in her car seat.

Change the strollers in the trunk to the jogging one so I could work out after I drop the girls off.

And we are on our way to sit in 25 minutes of traffic. Reach back and feed Holland her bottle as she starts to get fussy about half way through the drive.

Then drop the girls off 6 minutes before the bell and my heart is full as I see their sweet smiling faces blowing kisses to me as their teacher walks them in!

Head to the park with my running buddy (Can't wait until they'll take her at the gym), but until then, she's a pretty cute partner:)

Okay, so today was super uneventful, low stress and not very humorous.  Why is that?

I could say it's because I was so organized and we have a great routine.  That might be a small part of it.  I could say it's because my girls decided to cooperate today and no unexpected accidents happened.  That's also a small part of it.

But when I reflected on the day, it hit me.

JESUS WAS THE DIFFERENCE TODAY!!!

Now hear me on this, Jesus is ALWAYS present in our days, but today I actually chose to listen to Him.  I chose to start my day with Him and that set the whole tone for our day!

There have been other days in the past few weeks that go very similarly to this morning, but I drop the girls off flustered or even angry.  They walk into school discouraged or upset all because of MY ATTITUDE!!!

I am not saying starting the day with The Lord is a sure fire way to have a successful and smooth day, but it sure keeps things in perspective and when those little hiccups do come, I am a lot slower to anger, quicker to forgive and love. 

 

 My day doesn't start out all about ME, but about Him and others. And that attitude affects my kids also.
So basically, this morning reminded me of the VERY simple concept, "START MY DAY WITH JESUS (AND COFFEE)". No matter the events of the day, we can bring Him glory.