My first day home alone with all 6 children felt like a bit of a disaster. Everyone needed me and there was never enough.
I wasn't trying to do it all, but with even the bare necessities of life I felt like a failure. I hadn't showered or eaten. I yelled...a lot. I even burned the kids' lunch while I was nursing the baby.
Then my husband walked in the door and I burst into tears. He had stopped by during his lunch break to check on me and just seeing him brought so much relief, but I was also embarrassed. I felt like I should be better at this.
Maybe I cried out of exhaustion or my hormones, or maybe it was the fear that maybe I just can't do this.
The next day my mother came over to help me. She brought me a list titled "10 Real Helps for Really Busy Moms" by Ann Voskamp of One Thousand Gifts.
I placed it on my refrigerator and have been reading it throughout my busy, overwhelming days. They are all encouraging, but here are two of my favorite quotes:
Homemaking is about making a home, not about making perfection. A perfect home is an authentic, creative, animated space where Peace and Christ and Beauty are embraced. (Perfect does not equate to immaculate.)
Believe it: I have all I need for today. The needs of our day are great, but God is greater and we call him Providence because we believe: He always provides. (And when God provides, He should be praised, and if God always provides, shouldn't praise always be on the lips?)
My days are still crazy. The laundry is piled up and there are dirty dishes in my sink. But I'm taking it slow. There is a sweet baby in my arms and love and laughter in our home. This moment won't last forever and soon life will feel normal again...our new normal.
Your kids will soak up the peace and love you hold in your heart :o) Keep up the good work, super-mommmy!
ReplyDeleteOh, Wish I could give you a huge hug! And then I'd help with the housework!
ReplyDeleteOh! My heart goes out to you! Yes, enjoy those sweet moments with your children!
ReplyDeleteEvery day is teaching me that I cannot do -anything- without the Lord's strength and His Spirit within me. I have Blessing #1 to look after and Blessing #2 is on the way... and of course we want as many as God will give us! But each day is a messy and I fail SO miserably, and then I remember that I love these children with the love with which God first loved me, and I cannot do this Mommy thing on my own. How faithful God is to provide! I do pray that He gives you much strength in these coming days, and much love for each of the children he has blessed you with!
"Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullaby, rockabye, lullaby loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peek-a-boo
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren’t his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullaby, rockaby lullaby loo.
The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep."
- Ruth Hulbert Hamilton
Thanks for the encouragement ladies! Things are finally settling down and falling into place.
ReplyDeleteThank you Goldberry for the poem, I love it! I've only heard the last few lines before...and I had written them in the back of the Bible a long time ago. :) But I love the rest even more!