Do you ever have those kind of days when you wish you could just do it over? Yes? Well yesterday was one of those days…it was just terrible.

It started about 4:30 a.m. when my youngest crawled into bed with me. I proceeded to be kicked for the next 2 hours until we finally fell back asleep; such a deep sleep, in fact, that the boys and I didn’t wake up until 10. Now, for some of you parents out there, you may think that’s fantastic! You might say “I can’t remember the last time I slept until 10 with kids!!” Well…stay tuned….

I started breakfast, fixing one of the boy’s favorites, waffles. That’s when the complaining started, “I don’t want waffles, I want pancakes!”, “Mom, my waffles are cold!”….insert deep calming breath (the first of many and one of the few successful ones).  Over the next several hours, as I was trying to get my daily household responsibilities completed, I was also being a referee. My boys just would not get along. My 5 year old knows exactly what to do to push my 9 year olds buttons, and he does it quite well. My oldest, try as I might to guide him, ALWAYS retaliates, which usually ends up making his little brother cry…and this cycle repeats over and over and over.

Next comes the continue struggle of potty training, yes my 5 year old, still CHOOSES not to do #2 on the potty. Trust me, we have tried every method under the sun…it comes down to having a very strong willed son. He chose to use that strong will the entire day; he had no issue telling me ‘no’, running from me when he knew he was in trouble, and refused to clean up by having a full fledged kicking and yelling outburst. Yes, I immediately corrected him each time; and as this behavior continued throughout the day, I admit that my patience was starting to run very thin.

We finally head to my oldest son’s championship baseball game; after 10 mins of yelling: “Get your cleats on!”, “Unlock this bathroom door right now!”, “We’re going to be late if you two don’t hurry up!”. My son had an undefeated regular season, but unfortunately lost his championship game. He was bummed, but was happy his season was over. He has voiced over the last few weeks that he doesn’t want to play baseball anymore..will save that for another blog post. You would think it would be a quiet night, considering the day we had and the let down of the game, but no. I fixed dinner and within an hour of that I had lost it…I was done. Crazy mommy totally came out… and the boys were sent to bed a couple hours earlier than usual.

I sat on the couch for a while, checking my various social media accounts repeatedly, and then the guilt set in on what my part was in the day.

You see, I was so caught up in what I needed to get done around the house, was so irritated when I would be interrupted in checking my phone; that I missed that maybe my children’s consistent arguing was because they simply wanted my attention….and I gave them some…my anger.

I am reminded that life is fleeting; and there will come a time when they will be too busy doing their own thing, and I will miss these Summer days when I was home with them. I don’t want to waist this time and leave memories that ‘mommy was too busy on her phone and cleaning the house to play with us’…

Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a real blessing. – Psalms 127:3

I woke up extra early today, no reason, I just had this feeling that it’s time to get up. I headed downstairs, made my husband his lunch and a cup of coffee, and kissed him goodbye as he headed to work. I then fixed myself a cup of coffee and sat down, opened my Bible, and spent some time with the Lord. My youngest woke up first, was so happy to see me and give me a morning hug. I spent the morning just talking to him. Our county fair is in town and he is very excited. Shortly after, my oldest woke up, and curled up on my lap. We sat there awhile, just snuggling. I fixed their breakfast….

Today….is a new day.

By His grace,

Misty