Mother's Mussings

I interrupt my normal blogging to share a change in my perspective. I realized today in a moment of sheer frustration that I had to change how I was looking at things. Before I take you on a tour of my home, keep in mind that we have just finished this major production at church and things have been more than chaotic. Now follow me through the house:

Walk in our front door and you will see 2 wreaths sitting behind the door waiting to be hung. They are actually waiting on me to go buy some hooks, so they can be hung. It is really annoying me that they are sitting there, no time to run to the store, and when I shift my view I see that one of them is a favorite wreath my parents bought when I was a little girl. It is a painting of Jesus in the hay with the animals all around him and a straw wreath attached to the painting. Now I am not so annoyed, this is important that I get his hung!

In my Living Room you will see books spread on the floor and on the end tables. Why? Well since there are no gifts under the tree, we put all our Christmas books under there and delight in reading them throughout the Christmas season. The books on the end tables are David's new curriculum (thanks to a sweet friend), and Chris has been going through them as they arrive. I am thankful that my kids want to get the books out and read them, and I am thankful for a husband who is investing in our Son's education.

In the Boy's room, from my view, it appears that there are toy land bombs exploding EVERYWHERE. But if I get down on their view I see Robinson Crusoe's tree house made out of Lego's, tomorrow's clothes laid out to be worn, money that was being counted to buy Christmas presents, and all the pillows they keep on their bed. Amazing, my frustration just melted when I changed my view.

In the girl's room, there are clothes on the floor and critters by the bed. WHY? Because they were trying to find matching outfits for tomorrow, when they get to help their brothers build a fort outside. And because they couldn't find the "right" critter, but then when they had touched all the critters they just had to have all of them in the bed (it wouldn't be fair to the other critters if they didn't have a spot on the bed). And then I looked in the bed, and realized how sweet they had been to help me when we had little time this week, or when I was so exhausted they sat and snuggled, or when they cleaned up everything in their room yesterday.

In the den, I was so mad! I mean really MAD! The den was clean yesterday and as we were walking out the door last night, all the dress up clothes were strewn all over the floor. And then I held my tongue, thought about why, and realized that we had panicked looking for a princess hat we needed last night. Julia had been diligent and looked through each drawer until she had found it right before we left. So it wasn't her fault we didn't have time for her to clean it up. However, it was my fault for expecting her to look through each drawer like an adult would.

So on my way to church tonight I realized that I do want my house neat and tidy, but do I really look at the situation or just get overwhelmed by the sheer volume? And I need to take a step back and look at my family. We have all had a crazy week, not just Chris and I, but all of us. the kids spent A LOT of time at the church this week, and they needed to crash, unwind, and be kids! So tonight they are getting a PASS on their chores, and I am loving how God changed my view!!