On Mother's Day, our next-door neighbors were the speakers in Sacrament Meeting, which made me happy, because I like these neighbors. I teach their girls piano lessons, their youngest daughter likes to play with Jack, and they installed sprinklers about the same time we did, so we were able to commiserate about how tough this Snowflake dirt and wind can be on anything you're trying to grow. Really. Remind me to tell you sometime about how we've been struggling again with our landscaping--or rather, lack thereof.
Anyways. Enough with the tangents.
The oldest three daughters and the parents spoke, and while all of the talks were very sweet and Mothers-Day-ish, the mom's talk stood out the most. Probably because she's about 10 years ahead of where I am in our family, and so I watch how she does things, taking mental notes of how she handles different situations. She really is awesome, but she's very real, and it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who has some of the struggles I have.
One of the things that she mentioned in her talk was kind of a life-changer for me. She said (and I'm paraphrasing here), "Own your decisions. If you're going to play with your kids instead of mopping the floor, don't feel guilty for having a dirty floor at the end of the day, remember that you decided to play with your kids instead of taking that time to mop the floor! And vice versa: sometimes you need to get the house clean, and if you have to put on the TV in order to do it, don't feel guilty! You made a decision, now just own it!"
That part of her talk (along with several others) really hit me hard. I am a BIG apologizer--I get it from my mom. In fact, on my mission, I was hit by a car while riding my bike once, and as I clambered off the guy's hood, I apologized and then thanked him. True story (and no, it was not my fault--I had the right of way, but the guy was on his cell phone and didn't notice me). Pretty much one of the first things Steve can expect me to do upon his getting home are kiss him and then apologize for whatever didn't get done that day. And let's face it, there is always something or other that didn't get done that day.
However, I'm going to take this as my mantra: own it. For two reasons--first, if I have to make a decision to do or not to do something, I need to make it a conscious decision, rather than allow my day to be decided by my situations. And second, this mantra forces me to not feel guilty (or at least try not to feel guilty) for whatever I've chosen to do.
So, yesterday, although I had a To-Do list longer than my arm (and I have very long arms), I decided that because Clark and Jack both had stuffy noses and coughs, I was going to take them and the humidifier into Jack's very messy room, and we were going to play in there with the door closed.
So we played.
And we played.
And we played some more.
And although the room got cleaned in the process, a half an hour later, it looked like this again:
And you know what? I was fine with it. Because I had made the decision that playing with my kiddos was more important than having a clean house--for yesterday.
Anyways. Enough with the tangents.
The oldest three daughters and the parents spoke, and while all of the talks were very sweet and Mothers-Day-ish, the mom's talk stood out the most. Probably because she's about 10 years ahead of where I am in our family, and so I watch how she does things, taking mental notes of how she handles different situations. She really is awesome, but she's very real, and it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who has some of the struggles I have.
One of the things that she mentioned in her talk was kind of a life-changer for me. She said (and I'm paraphrasing here), "Own your decisions. If you're going to play with your kids instead of mopping the floor, don't feel guilty for having a dirty floor at the end of the day, remember that you decided to play with your kids instead of taking that time to mop the floor! And vice versa: sometimes you need to get the house clean, and if you have to put on the TV in order to do it, don't feel guilty! You made a decision, now just own it!"
That part of her talk (along with several others) really hit me hard. I am a BIG apologizer--I get it from my mom. In fact, on my mission, I was hit by a car while riding my bike once, and as I clambered off the guy's hood, I apologized and then thanked him. True story (and no, it was not my fault--I had the right of way, but the guy was on his cell phone and didn't notice me). Pretty much one of the first things Steve can expect me to do upon his getting home are kiss him and then apologize for whatever didn't get done that day. And let's face it, there is always something or other that didn't get done that day.
However, I'm going to take this as my mantra: own it. For two reasons--first, if I have to make a decision to do or not to do something, I need to make it a conscious decision, rather than allow my day to be decided by my situations. And second, this mantra forces me to not feel guilty (or at least try not to feel guilty) for whatever I've chosen to do.
So, yesterday, although I had a To-Do list longer than my arm (and I have very long arms), I decided that because Clark and Jack both had stuffy noses and coughs, I was going to take them and the humidifier into Jack's very messy room, and we were going to play in there with the door closed.
So we played.
And we played.
And we played some more.
And although the room got cleaned in the process, a half an hour later, it looked like this again:
And you know what? I was fine with it. Because I had made the decision that playing with my kiddos was more important than having a clean house--for yesterday.Today is different. I still have all of those things that didn't get done on my To-Do list from yesterday, along with today's To-Do list, and I've decided that I do want to get the house clean in time for Steve to get home from his work trip. So, I put on a couple of TV shows, set Jack and Clark in a tent with the humidifier in front of them, and got a-cleanin'.
And guess what? That's okay. Because that was my decision, and I'm going to own it!
Comments
Thanks for calling yesterday, too. I shall call back soon, I promise. :)
P.S. the picture of Clark with his open mouth smile is absolutely adorable :)
I was thinking of you today, and just wanted to tell you that I miss you. I enjoyed visiting with you on the phone the other week, and I sure appreciate your friendship.
Love ya!