It's one of those 'full bowl of macaroni and cheese followed by a raid of my kids halloween bags during nap' kind of days. My kids probably feel like Dorothy, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion (and the little dog, too!) chased by you know who.
You guessed it. It's chore day.
But what about those fantastic chore charts you ask? Yeah. Those are great - when I consistently enforce them. And I haven't. Clara can drag her feet like nobody's business, and Abbie can make this sound... it's indescribable, really. Stephen was actually pretty great at it until he realized that the girls are VERY effective at avoiding chores. Then he jumped on the 'it's not fair' wagon and deftly mimicked his sisters actions - adding some of his own noises of agony.
It's enough to make a mom want to sic flying monkeys on her kids.
So the perfect storm has occurred here in Oz. Whiney kids, fairness police, deflated and inconsistent mom, and a busy morning schedule. And here I am - silently thinking "I'll get you, my pretties!"
As one of my friends recently confirmed - what goes on in my head is ALWAYS written on my face. This is probably the reason that my kids are avoiding me. I should check the mirror and see if my face is green and my nose pointy.
The cure? You guessed it. Pray. It's so simple and so effective - why do I fight it? How can I forget it?
You might have noticed that I added a little link on my side bar - it's a picture of a little girl with a 7x7 on it. One of the blogs I check regularly (and have blogged about before) has written up 7 prayers of scripture that she prays for her kids 7 times a day. I'm pretty sure 7x per day will be way out of my reach, but it's worth a shot, right? Right?
Last weekend I went to a conference called 'Hearts at Home.' It was an amazing time. What an encouragement! One of the break out sessions was called 'Living the Promised Life' - by Susie Larson (also on my sidebar). Wow. The challenge to live a life of promise.
Hopefully praying over my kids - saying a blessing and a promise out loud to them daily (yes, even during these perfect storms of life) will help them embrace what God has in store for them.
And maybe, just maybe, it might keep me from melting every time a little rain falls. :)
