This could be because I'm a person who likes writing things down (obviously). But I found something the other day, when Miss Boo was ransacking a stack of notebooks for papers to write ROES on, that encouraged me greatly.
It was a list rather grandly titled "Goals for Academic Year 2010-2011" and it included such things as "knows numerals 1-10" and "potty trained" for Miss Boo and "says please and thank you" and "sits still to read a book" and "colors without eating crayons" for Buddy. (It also included "WEANED" for Buddy. Happy to say that happened, or I'd be one of those heroic tandem-nursing mamas at the moment.)
The exciting thing for me about this list is that I wrote it and forgot about it. I wasn't going down the checklist each week trying to get more and more done. And yet, God is faithful, and my children can indeed recognize numbers (Miss Boo was counting objects in her workbook and then writing numerals this morning) and Buddy indeed colors without eating crayons (doesn't always stay on the paper, but at least he doesn't *always* eat the crayons).
As moms we often tend to focus on what we're falling short at--sure, maybe we pay bills on time, but we focus on the fact that we don't keep an Excel spreadsheet up to date. Sure, maybe our kids have clean clothes, but we focus on the unfolded socks. Maybe our kid says please and thank you beautifully, but we focus on the slow potty-training.
May I suggest we all quit it? I'm talking to myself, here, as much as you. There's not a lot to be gained on fretting about our shortcomings. Instead I think it's better to focus on what the Lord has laid out for us to do. Miss Boo learned her numbers because her daddy and I counted things with her all the time, because we were present with her all the time. Buddy learned not to eat crayons because we colored with him (and, possibly, because all his teeth came in). So much of what I worried about as somehow being reflective of my parenting turns out to be a developmental thing. Simply, two-year-olds and fifteen-month-olds are not the same.
I think I'm going to make another list today--when the kids finally pass out from exhaustion--and then I'm going to forget about it, so I can encourage myself again in about nine months.
Cheers,
Breanna
It was a list rather grandly titled "Goals for Academic Year 2010-2011" and it included such things as "knows numerals 1-10" and "potty trained" for Miss Boo and "says please and thank you" and "sits still to read a book" and "colors without eating crayons" for Buddy. (It also included "WEANED" for Buddy. Happy to say that happened, or I'd be one of those heroic tandem-nursing mamas at the moment.)
The exciting thing for me about this list is that I wrote it and forgot about it. I wasn't going down the checklist each week trying to get more and more done. And yet, God is faithful, and my children can indeed recognize numbers (Miss Boo was counting objects in her workbook and then writing numerals this morning) and Buddy indeed colors without eating crayons (doesn't always stay on the paper, but at least he doesn't *always* eat the crayons).
As moms we often tend to focus on what we're falling short at--sure, maybe we pay bills on time, but we focus on the fact that we don't keep an Excel spreadsheet up to date. Sure, maybe our kids have clean clothes, but we focus on the unfolded socks. Maybe our kid says please and thank you beautifully, but we focus on the slow potty-training.
May I suggest we all quit it? I'm talking to myself, here, as much as you. There's not a lot to be gained on fretting about our shortcomings. Instead I think it's better to focus on what the Lord has laid out for us to do. Miss Boo learned her numbers because her daddy and I counted things with her all the time, because we were present with her all the time. Buddy learned not to eat crayons because we colored with him (and, possibly, because all his teeth came in). So much of what I worried about as somehow being reflective of my parenting turns out to be a developmental thing. Simply, two-year-olds and fifteen-month-olds are not the same.
I think I'm going to make another list today--when the kids finally pass out from exhaustion--and then I'm going to forget about it, so I can encourage myself again in about nine months.
Cheers,
Breanna
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