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Sunday, November 21, 2010

A Little Mommy Pride

I'm in the kitchen getting lunch together the other day while my two favorite preschoolers are in the dining room playing "Going to Africa in Noah's Ark" under the very large dining room table covered in blankets of all varieties.  Pretty normal occurrence in our house.  And I hear my Princess Lou tell her brother, "Mr. Sir, guess what?  My teacher told me I could be Mary."

That part isn't quite a normal experience in our house.  The conversation was not directed to me, but upon overhearing it, I'm not gonna lie that my heart skipped a little beat.  Or two.  I headed straight for the ark that might have been floating somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean for all I knew to verify that I had just heard the story correctly.

"Princess, did I just hear you right?  Are you going to be Mary in the Christmas program this year?"

"Well, my teacher said I could."

This was followed by a long series of questions from me to investigate whether this was accurate information, or if my sweet, innocent, sometimes confused 5 year old had maybe misinterpreted the conversation with her teacher.  For all I can tell, she's got her facts straight.

I think I am more excited about this than she is!  Don't get me wrong; she's thrilled.  As evidenced by the fact that she deemed it worthy enough to report to her brother.  But I think I might be embarrassingly excited about this monumental event.  I mean, this is a big deal.  Mary is the coveted, sought after, main part in the Christmas play.  Only someone highly deserving gets such an important role.  I'm pretty sure it would have been enough glory to ride out an entire year for me if I would have ever had such an honor.  I don't think she gets it.

Or maybe...more likely...I don't get it.  As I'm discovering happens more frequently than I care to admit, maybe my 5 year old does have a better perspective than me.  She's excited.  Which is good.  But maybe instead of being so excited for Princess Lou, I should step back and shift my focus to what the story represents, God incarnate, here on earth, in the form of a babe.  WOW!!!  Maybe who gets to reenact the play 2000 years later isn't quite as important as the original nativity story.  And maybe it's possible that my 5 year old understands that better than I do!

But that's not gonna stop me from being just a little bit proud.  Or maybe I'll be absolutely humbled on the day of the program to learn that my sweet princess was more confused than I thought and ends up in a generic angel costume once again.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

"Chore Helper Checklist"

I've been on a mission lately.

In the last couple of months, I have spent a lot of time thinking about discipline.  I even started a post on it way back in August, but since then, I've discovered that this is more than a simple blog post can cure.  Maybe one day soon I'll discipline myself enough to finish that post.

Until then, let me share this little tidbit with ya.  Several weeks ago, I stumbled upon this little "chore helper" checklist.  I even got it on half-price sale.  :)  Anyway, I downloaded it immediately and put it to good use just as fast.  And let me tell you, it's my new love.  I'm maybe a little too obsessed with the checklist these days.

It's kinda hard to tell from the website, but I feel like this list is just exactly what I needed to help me keep on top of household chores.  I feel like this is something I have struggled with more than ever since our latest family member arrived last February, and this checklist keeps me both motivated and on top of the daily duties.  I love how it incorporates the usual household stuff with less frequent tasks like flipping your mattresses.

But my absolute most favorite part about having a checklist like this is that it helps keep me from being OCD about cleaning.  Sometimes I just avoid all cleaning because wiping the kitchen counters down might lead to emptying out every cupboard in the house to be vacuumed, washed and reorganized.  But with a simple checklist to keep me on task, I can wipe down the counters, check it off the list, feel productive and know that one day I am going to flip the page and it's going to say Dec. 5th: Clean out one kitchen cupboard.

Best of all, it even includes things like scrapbooking, baby books, and hobbies!  Yes, that's right, it includes those things as part of the daily "to-dos!"  So, if this is the kind of thing that helps you keep your house in order, check it out!

And I'm off- to check this off my Chore Helper Checklist!