A few of my other mom friends have told me it is never a good idea to pray for patience because Heavenly Father is always willing to give you opportunities to be patient if you do. I personally had not experienced this until today. I had 15 minutes this morning while the kids were still occupied so I decided I would read my scriptures like I had challenged my YW to. I said a prayer before I got started and I asked for help applying what I was reading to my life and I through in a little line about being more patient as well. I felt like my study went really well and was feeling really good and excited to start my day off on the right foot.
When I came out I found my children on the floor smashing frosted mini-wheats into the carpet. As in they dumped the ENTIRE bag on the floor and took P's tools and were hammering them into the floor. How on earth do they come up with these things? I felt like my prayer helped in the sense that I did not yell at my children. Little did I know I had more in store for me today.
Quiet time today started out normal, with lots of laughter and loud noises. After about a half hour I decided to poke my head in because the laughter had ceased and if you are a parent, you know that silence is never a good thing. Well, I was right. I opened the door to find this:
I must be honest, as soon as I opened the door I started laughing which is good in the sense that I did explode at my children but bad because it only encourages the behavior. I ran and grabbed the camera and then calmly discussed my frustration and why this was a bad choice. They each had a Costco size bottle of lotion and had pumped out who knows how much lotion on themselves, their clothes, their toys, their books. the floor and Em's hair. Also note they found the box of wipes and thought it was important to open every one of those (at least they didn't empty them too).
Then we cleaned up and then took a much needed bath.
Positive things from this experience:
My children are growing taller and can now reach things they couldn't before
Their room smells fresh as a new baby
Don't sweat the small stuff, messes can be cleaned
Needless to say, my friends were right. On the other hand, I did learn a lot too. And aside from the hassle of cleaning up these messes there was no harm done. And I feel like a better mom today because I didn't yell at my children because of these messes. So I guess my prayer was answered. Lesson learned.
Love these kids and how they help make me a better person everyday.
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