Friends, I’m going to be 100% honest with you all today. This morning I woke up just before 4 am. I started to fall back asleep, and the baby started crying. After nursing him, A-Man was crying. He’s been fighting a cold the last week or so. His crying and coughing, kept waking up Baby M. Baby M’s crying was keeping A-Man from falling asleep. And in the whole mess of it, Mr. C was just trying to get to sleep. [all three of our boys share a room so that we have a playroom/homeschool room]
I got the boys settled, for the most part, but I was not going to get any more sleep. Neither was Chris, and he is also sick. So we moved out into the living room where Chris could lay down and I could do some Bible study. I was not going to let waking up early ruin my whole day. So I prayed. I prayed for all of the people I always say “I’ll pray for you” to but forget because I “don’t have time”. I prayed for patience with my kids. I prayed for energy. I prayed that I would be just engrossed in God’s Word and that I would understand it and really learn from it. I prayed for some peace in this crazy day. I prayed for health over my family full of sick kiddos and sick daddies. I prayed for our church. I prayed for our friends and church family. I was starting to just feel at peace. You know that frame of time right after a solid, intentional prayer time that is just like a huge sigh? Or is that just me?
Then, A-Man started coughing again which woke the baby again. So I nursed the baby again. He refused to be put down, so I stood in my living room, half falling asleep, wondering what in the world to do. Eventually, we put the baby down to sleep, left Mr. C to sleep as well, and brought A-Man out into the living room with us. We set up his pillow and blankie, and turned on Frozen. No judging here, you know you’ve watched it more times than you can count too! So I dug into my Bible study to the tune of “Do You Wanna Build a Snowman”. Who says our quiet time has to actually be quiet?
By the end of frozen Baby M and Mr. C were awake, so everyone had breakfast [and I had more coffee.. I was maybe on cup 4 at this point!] and we turned on The Pirate Fairy. Normally? Mr. C does his schoolwork right after breakfast, and we power through all our lessons before rest time. Today? Ha. I’m calling it a “family health” day. Mr. C is not sick at all. But he has one brother who’s sick, another brother who’s teething [so attached to mom all.the.time] and Chris was sick too, so I didn’t have help. So no school today. But hey, isn’t that why we homeschool? Maybe we’ll make up some subjects tomorrow. We intentionally only schedule 4 days a week, and idea I got here, so that they have a 2 day weekend with their biological dad and one day off home with us. Maybe we’ll just do some extra lessons next week. Whatever works.
So today, I didn’t get out of my jammies all day. I fell asleep while my kids napped instead of writing a blog post and getting some work done. My kids watched Frozen, The Pirate Fairy, and then Tangled all before their nap. Then after their nap? We watched Sid the Science Kid. No more than two hours of screen time? Yeah. That person probably never had three kids four and under that get sick a lot!
But do you know what? I got more Bible time than I have in a really long time. I got new insight. I found new questions to ask my small group [I’m eternally grateful that my small group is filled with ladies further in their journey than I am that have answers to so many of my simple questions!] I got to pray for people that I may otherwise have forgotten under my overwhelmed schedule. I relaxed by reading blog posts, and I found a writer that is a huge inspiration to me. I have so much to be thankful for, and isn’t that what this month is all about? Seeing the blessings through all the mess?
So mamas. Even on days like this, when your kids watch so many Disney movies, you just know you’ve fried their brain, God is with you. He knows our struggles. Jesus was interrupted constantly! This is a tough season. Our kids are only little once, and we want to give them our all, but sometimes we just need to sit back and see that our all is very little compared to His all. Ladies, be encouraged. If you’re still in your jammies debating another cup of coffee even though it may keep you up all night, I’m right there with you. We’ll get through this season and look back on these days with love.
So what are you thankful for today? I’d love to hear your thoughts. :)
