"Life is just so daily..."

That is what I was thinking when I put myself in time out today. Ideas are so easy. Actions are much, much harder. "I was just writing about finding the beauty in my days and look at me now!" I thought to myself as I shut my bedroom door and prayed that the babes would entertain themselves for a few minutes. I was losing the contentment battle. They had both run screaming when I held up their boots to put on so we could go outside for some much needed fresh air. They wriggled and fussed when I put their coats on and pulled their hats off. They pulled their hats off again. That is when I put myself in time out.

We did finally get outside for a few minutes before they pulled their gloves off and put their hands in freezing cold water.We came in and went downstairs for snacks and a change of scenery. I got out my new Mothering magazines and laid on the futon while Amelia picked all of the cheerios out of her snack bowl and ate all of the raisins and Sam picked all of the raisins out of his and ate the cheerios:)

Ahhhhh, sweet encouragement in the form of articles and essays and poetry about Mothering. There was an article called "Forest for a classroom" that particularly inspired me today. It had (of all things) pictures of these children in Switzerland playing and learning outside in the snow. "I can do this." I said to myself. I just need the right gear and the right attitude. It is one of the most important things to me as a mama--for Sam and Amelia to learn from nature and all of its splendor. So, tomorrow is another day and we shall try again.

I pulled myself off of the futon and moved on. I pulled out two tomato cans I had cleaned and saved for the babes, and sure enough they played with them for a long while--filling them up with wooden pegs and then pouring them out or shaking them.We read lots of books and, oh yeah, we screamed. This was probably the real turning point for the day. We ran laps and laps around the loop of our dining room/kitchen/nursery chasing and scaring each other and screaming like crazy. It got my heart pumping and got us all laughing...sometimes you just need a good scream. Because really, life is just so daily. So, here's to seeking our daily best (with a few time outs and lots of prayer and cathartic screaming), Jen


And a video for you of Sammy doing some of his favorite things: Playing hide and seek with Melia, sweeping or work of some sort, looking at books, "Tuck!Tuck!s", jumping....does his sweet voice not just make you want to smother him in kisses?