Time For a Time Out
One day last week I was complaining to TDM that I had gotten dressed and left the house three days in a row and I was semi-serious in my complaining. By the end of the week, I wasn't complaining any more. I was praying that I could survive mentally. It ended up that the girls and I had left the house all seven days last week because we had something going on.
Now, I realize that for the working crowd, leaving the house seven days a week isn't abnormal. There was a time when I never would have given it a thought, but these days my job primarily focuses on our home and the three other people who occupy it. And anyone who has ever had or currently has small children can attest to the fact that that much busy-ness is just not a good idea. No matter how hard I try to keep it from messing with sleep patterns and other routines it just does. Kids need time to just be kids in their own space. I need time to just be me in my own space.
Smiley Girl didn't sleep well Saturday, which resulted in Smiley Girl's mama not sleeping very well and after the week that we had just finished I made the executive decision around 10:30 that there would be three girls not at church yesterday. It just wasn't worth the fighting, tantrums and meltdowns (both child and adult size) to get there. TDM has been working in the sound booth this winter so he is out the door way ahead of the rest of us and it's a challenge on a good day for me to get both girls and myself ready for all of the self-imposed necessities a Sunday morning brings with it. It just wasn't happening yesterday.
Instead, I curled up in my chair with my Bible and the sounds of my kids enjoying their space and spent some time with the Lord. And then I started trying to put our home back together from a week of dumping and running. And I'm still working on getting it back together, because when I use the term 'putting our home back together' I mean picking things up and putting them back in their proper places, cleaning and catching up on laundry, but I also mean adjusting back into schedules and catching up on things like putting laundry away, making a weekly meal plan, grocery lists and shopping, updating our calendar, paying bills and going through mail and reconnecting as a family, because all of those things are part of making our home function the way that we need it to.
I envision it kind of like a mobile over a crib - it has a center (which is our family) and then all kinds of things dangling off of it (which are all of the parts of keeping us together) and if ONE of those dangly things gets out of order then the whole mobile is off balance. It doesn't take long for the center to start wearing down because it isn't functioning like it was designed to - it goes off balance because there is too much weight somewhere that wasn't designed to bear weight.
Busy-ness takes a toll on our family no matter how hard we try to keep things together. Yesterday was a time out day. Tomorrow will be a time out day. And hopefully our family 'mobile' will be back in balance again.
Now, I realize that for the working crowd, leaving the house seven days a week isn't abnormal. There was a time when I never would have given it a thought, but these days my job primarily focuses on our home and the three other people who occupy it. And anyone who has ever had or currently has small children can attest to the fact that that much busy-ness is just not a good idea. No matter how hard I try to keep it from messing with sleep patterns and other routines it just does. Kids need time to just be kids in their own space. I need time to just be me in my own space.
Smiley Girl didn't sleep well Saturday, which resulted in Smiley Girl's mama not sleeping very well and after the week that we had just finished I made the executive decision around 10:30 that there would be three girls not at church yesterday. It just wasn't worth the fighting, tantrums and meltdowns (both child and adult size) to get there. TDM has been working in the sound booth this winter so he is out the door way ahead of the rest of us and it's a challenge on a good day for me to get both girls and myself ready for all of the self-imposed necessities a Sunday morning brings with it. It just wasn't happening yesterday.
Instead, I curled up in my chair with my Bible and the sounds of my kids enjoying their space and spent some time with the Lord. And then I started trying to put our home back together from a week of dumping and running. And I'm still working on getting it back together, because when I use the term 'putting our home back together' I mean picking things up and putting them back in their proper places, cleaning and catching up on laundry, but I also mean adjusting back into schedules and catching up on things like putting laundry away, making a weekly meal plan, grocery lists and shopping, updating our calendar, paying bills and going through mail and reconnecting as a family, because all of those things are part of making our home function the way that we need it to.
I envision it kind of like a mobile over a crib - it has a center (which is our family) and then all kinds of things dangling off of it (which are all of the parts of keeping us together) and if ONE of those dangly things gets out of order then the whole mobile is off balance. It doesn't take long for the center to start wearing down because it isn't functioning like it was designed to - it goes off balance because there is too much weight somewhere that wasn't designed to bear weight.
Busy-ness takes a toll on our family no matter how hard we try to keep things together. Yesterday was a time out day. Tomorrow will be a time out day. And hopefully our family 'mobile' will be back in balance again.
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