Christmas in March

It's still Christmas at our house primarily because Christopher and Ella read Christmas themed books nearly every day. Naturally, this means that a lot of our conversations end up revolving around gingerbread cookies, snowmen and the like. And Christopher is completely obsessed with baking; I think 90% of his sentences have something to do with baking. So when Ella had an early out day of school this week I decided to surprise them with a gingerbread baking activity.

Christopher was literally shaking with excitement as we made gingerbread cookies. Ella had loads of fun decorating the cookies. I guess I made it on the good mom list for once.

Fortunately, Michael was well-behaved enough during the chaos:

And I tried not to stare and stress over the piles of laundry that were going unfolded:

I, too, have been trying to limit screen time more, and have found that usually means I have to be okay with having more mess to clean up which somedays feels beyond exhausting. It's worth it though, right?

The hardest part for me about having three kids is trying to keep up with all their needs, which seem never-ending to me, without becoming resentful. I feel so grateful to have these three cute kiddos but sometimes forget how to act grateful. I really dislike that about myself, and am trying to change it.

I listened to a podcast about motherhood about a year ago and really liked the direction they took with that loaded topic. One of the interviewees spoke about how she feels motherhood is a gift that many women are given because it gives us countless opportunities to practice becoming more like God. She kept saying repeatedly that motherhood is for us, not for our kids. That makes a lot of sense to me since, as Sarah said, I'm doing most of the learning and discovering. My poor kids are just the lab rats. Sorry about that, kiddos, but sometimes I make you gingerbread cookie dough and let you have at it. I hope that balances things out a bit.