Thursday, May 17, 2012

Laundry wars

Thanks to everyone for the encouraging words from my first blog. :)


As I was doing laundry yesterday, Dylan (my youngest, almost 2 yr-old!), came pouncing into the laundry room. And yes, I literally mean pouncing, because the kid never just slowly walks anywhere. It's always a jump, run, pounce, or sprint wherever he goes. Anyway, that's not the point. He came in and one of my biggest annoyances is that the kids love to come in the laundry room and crowd me while I'm trying to get things done. But, I resisted the urge to scoot him back out the door and let him stay. He quickly saw that I was folding the big pile in the basket, so he wanted to help. Well, his idea of helping was throwing each piece as hard as he could towards me, then watch me fold it, put it in the stack it went in, and then repeating til the whole pile was gone. And yes, there were a few socks I didn't catch that ended up behind the dryer.....oh well....I'll see those in a few months! ha! 
Here's the point. Would it have been easier for me to just tell him to leave so that I could work quicker? Of course! Have I done that before? Plenty of times! But for this time I chose to let him help in his unusual way. I caught myself thinking...what can it hurt? He is obviously wanting to help and do it in a fun way. 


I attend our MOPS group at church (Mothers of PreSchoolers). Our speaker a few weeks ago was our pastor, John King. Something he said really stuck with me. He said, "When it's not impossible, say yes." When your kids want to sleep in their clothes instead of pajamas....what's it gonna hurt?? Say yes! When they want to go outside and it's beautiful but you don't want to and have 1,000 things to get done inside. Leave it and go play...tell them yes! When they want you to cover them with every possible blanket in the house before going to bed even though it's 80 degrees outside...say yes! It's not worth the fight and you can always go in and take them off after they are asleep so they don't die from heat stroke (ha!). And yes, we've had this request many times. 
So, yeah, it took me a bit longer to fold that one particular basket of laundry, but it got done and I also felt that I'd gotten a victory in the mommy department (for the fleeting moment that it was). Dylan needed to feel like he helped and I also was not just constantly telling him "no!". I think sometimes we say no, just because it's not convenient for US, not because we have a good reason. 


So my thought for today: When it's not impossible, say yes!






In the beginning....there was a girl who was scared to death about the responsibility of being a wife (first!) and then a mom. Now there are two little ones who rely on her for everything they need and think the world of her. Little do they know that she is still that scared girl, just hoping she brings them up to honor the Lord and doing the best she can, though her failures seem to outweigh her positive contributions. Thankfully for her, they don't see that, and at the end of the day (no matter how bad the day was!),  they wrap their arms around her and tell her they love her. 

2 comments:

  1. Yay, Jamie! Glad you have a blog. Can't wait to follow along. I love blogging and still hope to post more often,too. :)

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  2. Love that sweet blonde-headed boy. :)

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