jennifer, Author at Hopeful Homemaker

It’s Her Job…

February 7, 2011 jennifer Musings on Life and Beauty

Occasionally I find it amusing to look at our home from the perspective of each child and come up with a humorous job description for each of them. Some would be to incite rebellion, others to restore peace, some to serve others, others to create obstacle courses for us to navigate around the house, some to surprise us, others to keep the pressure on patience levels at all times.

My 17 month old’s job could be loosely termed as keeping us on our toes. She’s also programmed to leave a trail wherever she goes by opening cupboards, emptying drawers, taking trash out of the trash can, filling the toilet with toilet paper or simply emptying a new roll of toilet paper on the floor. It’s like she’s playing Hansel and Gretel except there’s no need to retrace her steps. She only wants to press forward to climb another ladder and see what she can find up top. Her first successful climb to the counter top was while I was taking a shower. Gratefully Dad was nearby. Now she visits her crib while I shower.

I snapped a few pictures of her doing her job with a smile on her face. In fact she was so excited about it that every picture is somewhat blurry. She couldn’t stop bouncing up and down with pride.

Her newest trick is this: she reaches up over her head to feel around on the kitchen table for a dish the big kids might have left behind. She then slides it to the edge and with one hand pulls it down to a chair. Doesn’t matter how large or heavy it is. If it turns out that there’s food on it, she helps herself. Occasionally she carries it to another room in the house before digging in. The other day I found her in the middle of the family room with a bowl of oatmeal. She’s amazingly quiet about the whole process. She’s pulled it off once or twice when I was just a few feet away doing something and I didn’t hear a thing. Gratefully she has yet to break a dish or hurt herself, and slowly the kids are figuring out that I’m serious about clearing the table.

Really I love this stage. I don’t mind having my clean dishes strewn across the floor. I keep them down there for a reason. At least she can’t hurt herself with the contents of the drawer, and it helps her do her job.

This morning she chose to add “alarm clock” to her list of family duties. She woke up screaming at 3:30. That was, of course, after her brother was up crying at 2:30, who was up after his sister woke up at 12:30…

I got her, changed her diaper, and lay her in our bed between us. For the next hour she lay, wide awake, pulling the covers up to her chin and saying “bankie”, then kicking them off herself while saying it again about every 45 seconds. By 4:30 we declared the night worthless and got up. I got her dressed, fed her breakfast, and watched her run around the house celebrating as if she’d just pulled of the smoothest coup in history.

Maybe she did.

The thing is, I really don’t mind being up at 4:30. If I’m alone. Up at 4:30 with a baby is no good. All the things you plan to do at 4:30 don’t work with a toddler as company.

So here we are in a mostly quiet house with a 17 month old partying like it’s New Year’s Eve.

Like I said, her job is to keep us on our toes. And, apparently, to keep us awake.

I wonder how long it will be until nap time.

I hope you slept last night, and also hope your day is great!
Hopeful Homemaker edited to add: By 5 am the three year old was up as well, followed by my ten year old son at 5:15. Extended hours parenting today seems to be the trend. They don’t even have school today! Grrrr.

2 comments 8 kids

A Year of Habits, no. 5

February 7, 2011 jennifer Helpfulness of Habit

” Wherefore be not weary in well doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. Out of small things proceedeth that which is great.”

Those words have comforted me this week when I felt like I was accomplishing nothing of consequence. If only life on paper and life in real time were better friends with each other! At my house they seem determined not to meet.:)

Seriously, I have to pause and say that I’m so thankful for the week. I didn’t accomplish a fraction of what was in “The Plan” but I’m grateful to be alive, grateful to be where I am, grateful to live each day with my best friend at my side, grateful to be a mother.

This week was another “sick week” with children home sick four out of five days. It throws things off quite a bit to have them home. They want me to just be near them, to sit and watch a movie with them, and it’s nice sometimes to do that. Today everyone was healthy enough for our entire family to attend church together – a first in four weeks. I hope it continues.

My greatest victory for the week was completing an hour of exercise each day, Monday through Friday. More than once I did push-ups and sit-ups with a baby literally sitting on my head and shoulders, but I did it. With all the time we’re still spending in the night with sick children I’m not getting up at 4:30 a.m. to do it but I’m choosing to make it a priority and work the schedule around it. I feel like it’s an investment which I hope will start producing benefits in the near future.

While other children were obstacles to good daily schedules, I am also thrilled that my baby has begun napping again, and sleeping soundly. She is so much happier when she does it, which makes me happy too.

Last Saturday I cleared all papers off my kitchen counter. You know, the random spot where the mail, school work, and everything else gets dumped. I got rid of it, and kept that counter free of paper all week long. YES! Now for week two.

Today was week two of two different weekly habits I’m trying to institute in our home. One has been around for a while but we haven’t been consistent since my baby came along; the other is a new idea. OH, it feels good to just DO some of the things you know you SHOULD be doing. More to come on both as we fine-tune.

Once more, the daily schedule I want so much to have eluded me. This happened in part due to unforseen sickness in my children and partly because I’m dropping some things to add exercise in at a less ideal time of day. It will work out. I’ll keep trying.

Discipline, discipline, discipline. In some areas I have such an abundance while in others I’m terribly lacking. I’m learning. Life is good. Slowly I am learning to quell the voice in my head that is always chanting “not good enough” with a simple response, “At least it is something.”

Be not weary in well doing. Keep on going. Life is good.

Jennifer