Silver Linings

Last night could have been a perfect night--the one night in the week when all the kids slept peacefully in their beds, through the night, without crying or climbing into our bed....

But it wasn't.

Oliver, who has been very healthy all things considering, woke up at 2:00 and cried and cried....and cried and cried....and cried and cried some more. No amount of rocking, swaying, singing, or talking would pull him out of his fit. Our kids have had night terrors before, but it didn't seem like that was the issue. We were beside ourselves as to what we could do to help him. Eric finally just turned on the lights in his room and got out the toys, and Oliver decided it was morning.

Ironically, Henrik slept soundly, in his own bed, all night long. For the first time in....a really long time!

So, it was another hard night. I don't know how Eric got up for work. I slept through my alarm and two calls from Eric. Then Mierae came into my room and said Jolie had missed the bus. Argh!

So I dragged myself up, got Jolie up and dressed and fed, then woke the boys up and got everyone in the van to drop Jolie off at school.

An hour later the school called--Jolie was feeling sick and needed to come home.

So we packed everyone back into the van and checked Jolie out of school. And I told them I wasn't coming back another hour later to check Mierae in (once it had been 24 hours since she was feeling better). So we all came home and Jolie slept on the couch while we hung out watching Wild Kratts and The Piano Guys videos.

When Ollie was napping, and Jolie was feeling a bit better, we played together. We looked out the windows at our first snowfall, Mierae did snow angels on the deck, and we laughed and laughed taking silly pictures of ourselves.

I was thinking about what I had thought were the hard times of parenting--going through sickness, dealing with tantrums, the endless bedtime routine, getting homework done, the whining, constant messes, etc. And I realized that those things are just what parenting is! If I'm waiting around for perfect children who never get messy and never disobey and never talk back, I'm going to be waiting around forever!

I also thought about a quote I had seen on Pinterest by Neil L. Anderson: "Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling. It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It is what God gave you time for." That thought helps me so much to refocus my efforts and see the big picture.

I'm hoping to keep finding the silver linings of parenthood, and more happily accept all the opportunities I have to teach and nurture my sweet children.