Perspective Changes Everything

Perspective #1--The perspective I almost took:
After a full day of chasing children, putting them on time-out and hearing them whine, complain and fight, I was ready to put them to bed and have an hour quiet veg time with Colt.  Colt is often to the office late, and evenings (late evenings) are our time together.  Needless to say, kids didn’t get to sleep quite as early as I would have liked, and after popping out of bed a couple of times and requests for water, stories, stuffed animals, etc. we finally crashed into bed totally exhausted. When my baby cried at 1:30 in the morning, I struggled to regain consciousness to change her diaper and nurse her. She looks up at me with huge eyes and wanted to be held. She never fell deep asleep and continued to make her little noises most all night long, waking up fully every hour. Completely exhausted, I stagger to the kitchen to have a glass of milk and find a mouse staring at me from the top shelf of our pantry. I stand there not believing my eyes at this little intruder as he (I really hope it’s not a she!!) climbs over everything. Now, mice and I are not great friends and instead of being able to whack them, I just end up screaming and being frozen into inactivity. Colt comes out and asks if everything is okay. No! There’s a mouse in the pantry!! We then find that the toilet is leaking, and spend some time in the wee hours of the morning trying to fix it. Just as I doze off and get into deep sleep again, Silver wakes up calling to me that she’s had an accident (she usually wakes up dry and usually wears a diaper to bed). Insert a couple more times of a baby waking up here and then another one for Colt’s alarm to go off at 5:45 to play basketball. 6:00 enter River with a nightmare. Add another day full of laundry getting spread all over the front room after I folded it in the 5 minutes I was on the phone ~ dishes ~ headache ~ never ending meals ~ tired beyond belief ~ not having 2 hands because I'm constantly holding a baby while trying to accomplish everything that needs to be done etc. etc. etc!! There is never any extra time for myself.

Perspective #2--The perspective I decided to take:
I am very blessed to have children. We have the honor of having some of Heavenly Father’s royal spirits here in our home and to be a family growing together.

I am so grateful to be a stay-at-home mom where Colt works so hard to provide for our needs and leads our family with love.

We are safe and secure in our home with him as the head of it. I get to devote myself to the raising and nurturing of our children. I am the head tutor for this royal family. Every day I have the opportunity to teach and train three little souls about the gospel, being kind and developing a noble character.

I am also the head laundress for this magnificent family. One day the mountain of laundry will be a small hill of just Colt’s and Karin’s laundry, and I will have no sweet baby, and helpers to keep me company while I fold it. One day I won’t have children follow me from room to room and love to be wherever I am – I will miss that.

Colt takes the girls once a month so I can have an afternoon to myself – I miss them so much by the time they come back. I will miss these days terribly once they are passed. I get to exercise while putting Silver on time out for the 30th time while teaching her the value of consistency.

One of my most beloved titles is story reader. We get to read and tell stories, cuddled up on the couch while I watch the wonder in their eyes over what is happening in the stories and to see their fingers pointing at everything they know in the books.

I get to hear their squeals of delight and happiness.

I get to have a baby and nurse her and hold her throughout the day and night, to have a sweet little one and know that I am her mom. Yes, I may not have 2  hands much of the time, but this is a season of life where I can just slow down without too many demands or deadlines - to just hold my baby – what a treasured gift.  I will most of all miss this.

When our kids are raised, I will enter a season of sleeping (possibly even a nap when tired!) through the night without interruptions for drinks, potty or nightmares.

I have a husband that wakes up in the middle of the night (Enormous Sacrifice) to ask if I’m okay because he can sense that I am upset. True Love.

We have indoor plumbing that leaks occasionally – we just had the major water line coming into our house break and were without water for a day. Colt’s dad spent a good part of today under our house fixing it. I was home and able to hear the leak before it did more damage or waste more water, and we have family all around us as our neighbors that are willing to help. While a day without water is inconvenient, it helps me see how blessed we are to have it.  I was also able to see what we need to do differently for our years food storage:  1.  We need quite a bit more water than I could have ever thought.  I'm going to look into large water storage containers.  2.  Hand Sanitizer:  Washing hands uses quite a lot of water.  When clean water is at a premium, not having to use water to wash your hands will be important.  3.  Paper Products:  Paper plates & Cups - Again, washing dishes takes tons of water.  Will be on the shopping list.  It was a blessing to have a very very small trial run :) 

This is a beautiful Season of life with little children that will pass quickly and be missed.

Perspective changes everything.