Simply Bedtime

We have been blessed with a dawdler.  The bedtime routine itself is enough to drive me to drink (okay, maybe just pull my hair out).  Never mind attempting to have her (the dawdler) clean up the playroom; that makes my blood rise and my heart hurt, and I’m a pretty patient woman.  And in the middle of all this, in my first weeks as a Stay-At-Home-Mom, I’m continuing to try to live the Simple Life. 

 Is life simple when you feel like screaming because your children have no sense of urgency?  No.  Is life simple when you just want to read stories to the kids before bed but someone hasn’t even gotten their jammies on yet?  No. Is life simple when you have worked so hard to put routines and reward systems in place and some days they Just Don’t Work?  No.   Life is complicated and messy and FULL of emotion.  Of course it is, it’s meant to be.  

When does life get simple again?  When you can stop. Simply stop your body and mind.              
Breathe.  And breathe again.  One more time…
and remind yourself:

Because she’s only 5 and a half. 
Because her brother doesn’t help (especially when he decides to be an alligator). 
Because despite all of it, none of it really matters. 
Because before I know it, she’s going to be 12(or 8) and not need my help anymore. 

I’m stuck in one of those “cherish every moment” moments.  You know, the ones when people with kids 12 years older than yours say “cherish it now because it’ll be over before you know it” and you go “what, the whining and messy eating and negotiating and I’m-just-so-exhaustedness of it all?”  Yup.

And the simple life lady in me says that those people are right.  So tomorrow night I will help Bean get her jammies on and I will listen to whatever she is telling me as she’s making her way to start the bedtime routine.  Maybe we’ll find a way to start the whole bedtime thing 30 minutes earlier.  And I’ll have to be okay with that, because my kids are who they are.  And they, of course, deserve a Mom who simply loves them.  

Thanks for listening.  How do you remember to simply ‘be’ with your kids?

Health and Happiness,
Cerissa