Small Victories

I have learned from having toddlers that you have to appreciate the small victories. Growth and success in whatever area you're working on tends to happen in very small baby steps. It may be weeks or even months until you really see the fruit of what you've been working on.

I have had a few small personal victories lately that I will share with you.

First of all, most of you know my greatest parenting struggle occurs from 4 to 7 pm. I just get so overwhelmed during this time. Everyone is needing everything all at once. A family to feed, three to bathe, grumpiness from a long day. This is most often where I lose it, ending up screaming at my children or just generally being so task oriented that I experience no joy, thus causing no one else to experience joy during this time. Yesterday at the predictable time, I started to feel myself losing control. Those of you who have taken the Growing Kids class are familiar with the training practices of room time and blanket time. I typically tend to think these are a little corny. I've tried room time and it doesn't work quite yet. Amelia will play happily for however long I need her to but Lane will stand at the threshold of his room and scream non-stop for the entire time. And yes, I've tried letting him cry it out. He's a stubborn one. I've worked on blanket time from time to time and experienced some success but haven't been consistent. Last night, right when I felt it starting to slip away from me, I pulled out the blankets and told them it was blanket time. Something about Lane being able to see Amelia and not feeling trapped in his room makes this one work better for him. So I chose the one toy they were allowed to play with, separated their blankets by the width of the room, and set the kitchen timer. I told them they weren't allowed to get off the blanket or change toys until the timer went off. It offered me just the time I needed to gain composure, get a few things done, and pull it together for the rest of the night. I was so proud of them, too. Lane was very conscientious to keep one part of his body on the blanket at all times-even when every other part was off trying to reach the ball that almost rolled away. I think I will definitely make this a regular part of our day from now on. Maybe we can work our way up to the blankets being in their own room once Lane gets used to it.

The next small victory was waking this up this morning to spend some time praying and reading the bible before my children woke up. There was a time when I felt very strongly that this time needed to be in the morning at the start of my day. Once I had infants, I started justifying that I had been up all night so I needed all the sleep I could get. Or, the earlier I woke up the earlier my kids woke up making it impossible to have any quiet. So this time then happened during nap time. Now that I don't have a guaranteed nap time, most days I just wasn't fitting this in at all. Again, I justified that once Jason got home I needed to spend time with him rather than going into my bedroom to pray. Now I have come back around to the belief that this time for me needs to be in the morning. Not only because it seems to be the only feasible time, but symbolically as to not give God my left overs. That is exactly what I have been doing. Anyway, it was fabulous. I read some Psalms realizing that David had it far worse than I ever have it. I was encouraged by this as well as the thought that during David's time he only had God. (As if that wouldn't be enough...of course it would have been). But today, I have the privilege of having Jesus. Jesus, God plus grace, living inside me enabling me to be what I cannot be on my own. I can do this!

I'll let you know how it affects the rest of my day. Especially from 4pm to 7pm.