You know that moment? The one where your kids are getting on your nerves. The one where you look like a crazy among what appears to be organization feeling completely unraveled. Unraveled by those adorable little faces. The adorable faces with that wicked evil heart inside.
I feel like every time I share something, some grandiose idea I have for making life simpler with 3 tinies I loose that battle. I organize that stank'n toy room at least 3 different ways and it's all gone down the crapper. Last week my girls got grounded from nearly 90% of their playroom. No Joke! The rule is: if you don't clean up your toys before bed, whatever is left out gets picked up my mom and dad and put into "the closet". Most of the time the grounding last a full week.
Last week sucked! The grounding backfired. The 3rd night of this continual pattern, exasperated, I said, "Do you want to be grounded from these toys too?" to which my middle child just replied, "Sure. I be grounded." Rrrrrrrr Are you Kidding ME!!??!!
Morning Charts: fail
My husband does breakfast with the kids so he just herds them downstairs for feeding. I can't add "check to make sure they do their morning chart before they go down" is just not fair.
I don't have the time an energy to set this chart up nightly and monitor if she's following it. And then there's the whole "I wanted to play teacher/mamma" which means she just pulled the entire chart down through the cards to the wind.
One 4 One Theory: making my older 2 take one bit of thing they didn't like and get rewarded with a bite they did worked GREAT! #3...not so much.
Jamin is a terribly picky eater. I had no idea kids were born knowing the difference between junk food and healthy food. My older 2 didn't seem to discriminate. J-man, he knows! We've begun forcing food into his mouth because he won't spit it out but he won't put it in his won mouth. WEIRD!
Centers: {I was gonna write this post...maybe not} they keep them generally in the right places and we can find things easily 98% of the time but as for only playing in 1 center at a time using the "preschool method" has been a flop
Every morning, the kids head straight for the kitchen center. Who wouldn't!?! What's not to love about an entire kitchen set just your size with fun pretend food sets and miniature dishes? But that's been the extent of it. They drag it out and wonder off. Rrrrrr
My kiddos drag out {more like DUMP} all kinds of stuff. If they are looking for a dress-up item, they dump the bucket, get the 1 item and leave the rest in a pile on the floor. As I kids, I never understood why I had to "put it away before you got something else out". I mean, where's the imagination in that? I totally understand not wanting to play in just 1 center when so many coordinate.
If you're a "mamma" in the kitchen center then of course you need a baby from the baby center and to be dressed appropriately from the dress-up center and you might even want to read your baby a book from the reading center and then take them for a ride in a car from the riding center and while you're out for a drive you might as well stop at the grocery store which means you need to drag out Every Single Piece of the Kitchen Center and sprawl it around the playroom so you can shop around in aisles and then your room is so trashed that you just have to take your computer from the electronic center into the living room with your babies who have multiplied and then the baby gets hungry so you have to grab just a few food items from the mess-of-a-kitchen-center and then you need more baby items from the baby center to properly take care of your baby and....
"If you give a mouse a cookie" much!?!?!
On top of that, yesterday they were ungrounded from all those toys. Matt and I put them back into place, had a discussion about why they were grounded, and showed them once again where things were expected to be. Ya know, the "if you wanna keep it, take care of your junk" talk. We were gone most of the day yesterday so it all hit the fan again this morning. The girls had destroyed the kitchen. Thank goodness there weren't too many other center Everywhere; Yet- we caught it in time. I found them dancing around in cute dress-up items while playing instruments from the music center. I told them it was great they were having so much fun together and that I liked it! Then I ask them to clean up the kitchen stuff real quick so they wouldn't have a huge mess to clean up later. MELT DOWN. Long story {slightly} short{er}, Mags ended up telling me to just give away certain toys so she wouldn't have to deal with them. Rrrrrr
One thing I can't handle is a rude ungrateful child. I had to go into the laundry room and cry over piles of clothing I was sorting, generously provided by God. We Have So Much. Do I give it all away? Will the the experience teach them anything? How much really needs to go with us when we move? I don't want giving away things to be a punishment. I want it to be a wiliness out of the overflow of compassion in their hearts.
Sorry, today's rant doesn't have a real conclusion. I could easily Jesus juke this bad boy with a good story about me, the mom, not being diligent enough to train them how to put away toys or me being lazy with my quiet time just like they are with their toys clean up or me being ungrateful for the things given me. But nope. Maybe it's my self-righteousness eeking out or impatient but I got none of that today.
If you have a suggestion, I'm always up for them but please gently tell me about it. I might snap today if I'm overwhelmed with clever mom's who are doing it right.
My prayer today: That Patients, Thankfulness, & Generosity bred in my heart will overflow in front of the eyes of my babes so they may follow in step.
