Mothers can't resign

Psalm 30:5
Weeping may last for the night,But a shout of joy comes in the morning.

I was so inspired by my best friend's post on her newly created blog Mother by Design that I had to post tonite (er, this early am). I knew tomorrow (sorry, I keep forgetting it's a new day already) would have been a better day to start fresh but I just had to do it asap. Besides, my precious hubby would find out about the breakthrough before I even woke up to tell him all about it! See, honey, I am blogging for you, so when you come back home, don't fuss at me to come to bed. I'll be blogging for you! LOL! Oh, and I guess you'll see how late I did make it to bed, huh? I need to figure out how to disable that feature so you don't stress :). Kids actually enjoy fixing their own bfast right now! So, I ain't worried!

Anyway, my friend's blog ministered to me so much at the end of a very long day. I had a very rough beginning of a day myself today with a few of our children. And it did start with the prayer closet. But a child knocked on it to ask for permission to do something and the prayer line went really bad, it must not have been a prayer line after all. I considered resigning just a few short hours after the knock on my prayer closet's door, but like my friend said: where do I go to resign?

But by end of the day it really got so much better. When I read my friend's blog I realized we were in the middle of a similar struggle on the same morning. WOW! How about that? Wish I knew to pray for you, my friend. I sure spent some time in my closet, girl, probably around the same time you did. And though, it didn't seem to do much good shortly after MY talk (failures and shortcomings and forgiveness discussions were all there, my friend) to the kids, our day improved tremendously with a few more ups and downs, but with a much fresher prospective on everyone's part. Joy always comes in the morning, doesn't it? Darkness is always followed by light!!!

But, I have to admit, I am still dreading a bit the sewing project I have to continue tomorrow with my perfectionistic 11 yodd (she is the daughter of her mother, 'nuf said, is that why we disagree so much? Wish we were oppsites!!!. I, out of sheer innocence and just plain wanting to spend some bonding time with her during the spring break involved her in a spring dress making project. With no prior knowledge of pattern sewing I got help from a very sweet friend who helped us learn how to use a pattern the other day and came again yesterday to help us figure out something we got stuck on. I am a bit balder today than before I started. Bonding time didn't go too well with her but it was my fault as well and I totally repented of it and hope to have a better one when she is ready to pick it up again. But I had success with another child later on, almost close to midnite! Long day, huh?

My dh is a early to bed, early to rise. My 13 yo ds has been following in my footsteps lately. So, late nites have been a norm around here since dh is gone. The evening before I spent a long 2 hours playing Scrabble with 2 of my children way past their bed time (why does it take us so long to get used to the time change and juicing every light minute of the day before coming in?. We finished the game at 11pm (we took a spring break, so no need to get up early) It wasn't a very wise choice timewise, for we all slelt in way late, but it was well worth it. I told them I wouldn't repeat the mistake again, well, not soon, I added (I thought I learned my lesson in promising) The very next evening after promising I spent a few hours with our oldest playing chess. I thought that was the best time we've had in a long time. Well, regardless the fact that he beat me every single time. But it was so much laughter, joking and poking around. He brought me to tears a few times (I hate losing even a game I am not too good at) but at least it wasn't because of the issues we've struggled just a few hours prior! Haha!
God is so good. I've had such rocky times with my ds lately! But the Lord opened doors for us to bond together and lighten up! Baby, you must have really prayed tonite after I whined, for it worked, it was like BOOM! Answered prayer! He even finished the dishes ( instead of leaving them for bfast) after we were too tired to see the pieces or the board .
I am so glad to have found a way to spend time with him. I didn't think I had time for chess, though I love the game! I also thought he wouldn't want to play or teach me since he has gotten so advanced (all those nagging to get off chess here might get more frequent now, so I can catch up with him). But he was very patient and helpful, and still won!

I am totally ecstatic to realize that I have to find time for my children and have fun with them playing or doing things they really like (not just school or projects, fun stuff board games, play catch, etc). No, it's not easy to do it with 4 of them and still exercise my various other characteristics of the dad, mom aka the curfew cop, the cook, the laundry lady (not too good at that lately) and all the other ones. It's so hard to switch between I- was- just- your- playmate a few secs ago and now I am seargeant MOM! But, the bonding time, the relaxation that comes with it-can't beat that! Oh, how I love a break from school to actually be able to reconnect with those simple joys we can't always squeeze in on a regular school day.
Spring is awesome, the rain dried up and the fields are ready for our girls to practice ball! Dad will be home the day before their first games! Countdown, as I promised, still going on! 11 more days to go!!!
I just had to include my dd1 spring pic she took a few days ago. I hope she enters it in the photo contest next month. It hasn't been edited yet. It's SOOC! I'll post all the kids' pics later when they are all edited for the contest.