My day today was uncannily peaceful. I pinched myself ALL day... the boys played quietly with their toys, had only minor "Mommy, he hit me"-ish things, dinner turned out yummy (new recipe that is now top of Hubby's list!), my mom came to visit, sister-in-law and her friend came over for a little while, and did I mention that the boys played quietly with their toys? (ALL DAY!)
...and when I say "uncannily peaceful" I mean that I was not shocked when we encountered a moment of "crazy" this evening :) Josh was at youth group, and I had the boys in the tub before bed. ...when ALL the smoke detectors went off. This has happened before, once, so I didn't immediately think that the house was burning down. So... I pulled the boys out of the tub, and set about the house pulling all the smoke detectors down. They are the new kind (up to code...) that are all connected to eachother, and all wired to the ceiling, with a battery as backup. Our ceilings are tall enough that I had to have at least one chair to reach each smoke detector, pinch the release button, twist it, unhook the wiring, unplug the battery, and pull it down :) Jonathan was scared because he remembered the last time this happened (a week or so ago at bedtime- he was aaallmost asleep, and startled awake by the beeping... scared him enough that he had trouble going back to sleep!). After I pulled all the scary beeping-machines down, the boys and I snuggled up to some Veggie Tales to get their minds off of it. They went to sleep just fine, for which I'm grateful.
Anyway, back to our peaceful day! Awhile back I posted about searching to re-do our routine to encourage more creative, quiet play instead of rowdy (play?). I mulled over lots of great advice from you all, and it appears to be working! The boys aren't perfectly subdued all the time, but today was so, so encouraging!
A lot of the suggestions I was given were in the area of structure. We've settled into table-time mid morning (usually with a snack) on M-W-F, tuesday is our play-date day, and thursday is our library day. I'm asking the boys to have "quiet time with books" more often, and we've moved bath from "most nights" to pretty much every night- they miss it if we have to skip!
Josh told me a day or so ago that he noticed I was more peaceful. This I account to God's grace. Recently, as we walked through two tough years of stretching while we were living with family (whom we DO dearly love!), rookie business owners, and losing our daughter, I asked God for a season of peace. Praise God for His faithfulness! I know that while I work on routine, structure, and consistent discipline/expectations, God works on my heart. It's incredible how the peace that God places in our hearts trickles down to our children. I have not been real diligent about being "in the word" (does it get any more Christianese??), I don't have an amazing "prayer life", and I have noticed lately how distracted I've been during worship... I haven't really been working toward having a peaceful heart. It is evident to me that God heard my outcry for, "no more, God! spare me of any more!", and in His mercy, handed me peace.
I read somewhere that having a peaceful home where children play contentedly doesn't just "happen"-- you have to work hard to create it, and even then you have to work hard to maintain it. I believe that's true. But I think the most important element is not routine and structure, it is the condition of our hearts. Praise God for filling in the pieces we lack... for His faithfulness, and that He hears the cries of our hearts.
P.s. We are still sorting out why those smoke detectors keep going off... in the meantime, they are all sitting on the counter, detached from their wiring and with all batteries removed! Pray that our dry Christmas tree doesn't cause any trouble :) --don't worry, I turn the tree's lights off at night.
P.p.s.... Something I'm working on, along this line, is how I view things that are difficult. My natural response is to want things to be easy... but "in this life you will have trouble", Jesus says. I'm working on pressing in to hard things instead of shying away from them. (not that I'm running around looking for hard stuff to do- I mean press in to the hard things that God calls me to) What is God teaching you? I'd love to hear...
...and when I say "uncannily peaceful" I mean that I was not shocked when we encountered a moment of "crazy" this evening :) Josh was at youth group, and I had the boys in the tub before bed. ...when ALL the smoke detectors went off. This has happened before, once, so I didn't immediately think that the house was burning down. So... I pulled the boys out of the tub, and set about the house pulling all the smoke detectors down. They are the new kind (up to code...) that are all connected to eachother, and all wired to the ceiling, with a battery as backup. Our ceilings are tall enough that I had to have at least one chair to reach each smoke detector, pinch the release button, twist it, unhook the wiring, unplug the battery, and pull it down :) Jonathan was scared because he remembered the last time this happened (a week or so ago at bedtime- he was aaallmost asleep, and startled awake by the beeping... scared him enough that he had trouble going back to sleep!). After I pulled all the scary beeping-machines down, the boys and I snuggled up to some Veggie Tales to get their minds off of it. They went to sleep just fine, for which I'm grateful.
Anyway, back to our peaceful day! Awhile back I posted about searching to re-do our routine to encourage more creative, quiet play instead of rowdy (play?). I mulled over lots of great advice from you all, and it appears to be working! The boys aren't perfectly subdued all the time, but today was so, so encouraging!
A lot of the suggestions I was given were in the area of structure. We've settled into table-time mid morning (usually with a snack) on M-W-F, tuesday is our play-date day, and thursday is our library day. I'm asking the boys to have "quiet time with books" more often, and we've moved bath from "most nights" to pretty much every night- they miss it if we have to skip!
Josh told me a day or so ago that he noticed I was more peaceful. This I account to God's grace. Recently, as we walked through two tough years of stretching while we were living with family (whom we DO dearly love!), rookie business owners, and losing our daughter, I asked God for a season of peace. Praise God for His faithfulness! I know that while I work on routine, structure, and consistent discipline/expectations, God works on my heart. It's incredible how the peace that God places in our hearts trickles down to our children. I have not been real diligent about being "in the word" (does it get any more Christianese??), I don't have an amazing "prayer life", and I have noticed lately how distracted I've been during worship... I haven't really been working toward having a peaceful heart. It is evident to me that God heard my outcry for, "no more, God! spare me of any more!", and in His mercy, handed me peace.
I read somewhere that having a peaceful home where children play contentedly doesn't just "happen"-- you have to work hard to create it, and even then you have to work hard to maintain it. I believe that's true. But I think the most important element is not routine and structure, it is the condition of our hearts. Praise God for filling in the pieces we lack... for His faithfulness, and that He hears the cries of our hearts.
P.s. We are still sorting out why those smoke detectors keep going off... in the meantime, they are all sitting on the counter, detached from their wiring and with all batteries removed! Pray that our dry Christmas tree doesn't cause any trouble :) --don't worry, I turn the tree's lights off at night.
P.p.s.... Something I'm working on, along this line, is how I view things that are difficult. My natural response is to want things to be easy... but "in this life you will have trouble", Jesus says. I'm working on pressing in to hard things instead of shying away from them. (not that I'm running around looking for hard stuff to do- I mean press in to the hard things that God calls me to) What is God teaching you? I'd love to hear...
Hi Anna....I received your delightful little Christmas card today! I smiled reading this post. Praise God for his loving faithfulness! One thing God is teaching me...to stop and ENJOY the moment, season, circumstance, the 'right now'. I do similar activities with our boys, and I OFTEN play classical music {lots of David Nevue} and that amazingly calms them {and me!!}. Sometimes our detectors have gone off when the bathroom door is open after shower/bath without the fan on...whatever it is I hope you guys figure it out!
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing :-) you're an encouragement!
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