So I’m suffering a little from post-vacation stress disorder. The one where you come home and there aren’t doting relatives taking care of your children’s needs anymore, and as a result they have turned into little monsters, plus you are so angry that it’s snowing again that you could spit, and getting back into your old boring routine just bites. Other than that though, things have really been alright. Today was nuts, but despite the chaos, I feel good that I did manage to get a few things done. I’ll share my greatest success in a minute (because it might just be something you could love too). Anyway, everytime for the last two days that I ask my children to do or not do something, I have recieved one of three responses: 1) They argue. “But, I just want to…”, 2) They whine. “Nooooooo. That’s not fair (each word becomes three syllables).” or 3) They flat out disobey. “Hmmph!” (then proceeds to do what I just told them to stop). So I’ve had enough of that.
When something does not make me happy, I make a sign. Oh yeah?… Well, (scribble, scribble, grab tape, slap on wall) take that!” Here is what I made today, and affectionately call the “angry mom sign.”
Like the angry eyes? Whenever they started up, I just pointed to the kitchen wall and said, “Please read the angry mom sign!” I don’t know if it worked or not, really, but it at least saved me from repeating the whole, “I am sick and tired…” speech. It’s hard for me to count the number of times today I thought of this quote by Neal A. Maxwell:
“Like our faith, our patience is to be tried as well in order to be developed.”
And I am convinced that this is why Heavenly father saw fit to give me children. I had totally unchallenged and undeveloped patience. Except for particularly hard weeks on my mission in Argentina, or the year that I taught high school Spanish, my patience by and large had not been tested too much. But then I became a mother. And I think about my son’s kindergarten parent-teacher conference where Grant’s teacher told me “Continue to challenge him in these (such-and-such) areas,” and I can’t help but suspect that in my heavenly parent-teacher conferences, God is making similar plans for me– plans to challenge me in areas where I could stand to grow, even excel. Especially in the area of patience.
So the good thing I got done today was making six pans of baked ziti for the monthly Make-ahead Meal Exchange I have at my house. It’s awesome. We get together and swap meals and walk away with 5 new dishes made by friends. We eat a snack, share our recipes, and hang out and talk. Let me know if this sounds remotely intriguing to you, and I’ll draft up a future post with all the details of how we make it work.
Don’t forget to vote for your favorite limerick. I hid the results because I’m wicked and controlling like that, but there are several that are neck-to-neck for the lead.
Diapers and Divinity 