Pool Fun

I definitely made progress today! I would call it a 90% success. The kids behaved wonderfully...for the most part. A little bit of whining towards the end of the day, but that's to be expected with a 4 and 5 year old. We started the day with a breakfast of their choice and devotionals. I cuddled my kids while we watched movies, sat with Chris while he played Mario Kart (I'm still not asked to play), played My Little Ponies/stuffed animals with Aurora, cuddled and played with Abby, and at no point did I clean besides a quick pick-up that took maybe 4 minutes. I did not even touch my kitchen post-dinner until after they went to bed. I made sure I made my time about them. Around 3pm the kids asked to play in the blow up swimming pool we bought them yesterday. Usually I would have said no without hesitation. It's summer in central Texas...it's reeeally hot. Instead I told them to give me a minute while I thought about it. I asked myself what good reason I had for saying "no" besides me just not wanting to go outside. I came up with nothing. So I told them to get their bathing suits while Daddy and I blew up the pool.

Here I need to interject something. The makers of these rather large blow up pools need to come up with some inexpensive air pump that does it for you. We tried blowing up this pool ourselves and were quickly out of breath with almost nothing to show for it. We used a hand-held air pump that did absolutely no good. If it wasn't for our amazingly awesome neighbors lending us their tire air pump thing we would probably have spent a good three hours blowing up the pool via lung power.

The kids had a blast in that pool even though it was in the low 100's and we had no shade (I made sure to lather them in sunscreen). They had water gun fights, jumped up and down to make big splashes, and towards the end my husband decided to join them even though he was still in his normal clothes. I would have loved to join but I was holding Abby, our 1 year old, and she hates the water. She was sprayed with a water gun (it barely got her wet) and she immediately started to cry. So for today I enjoyed their happiness and contagious laughter from 10 feet away. Next time we do this I hope to put Abby down for a nap so I can join in the fun! The kids will definitely remember today.

The reason I call today a 90% success is because yesterday I told myself I would not get on my iPad unless the kids were not wanting my attention. When I first got on my iPad to read my favorite blog today the kids were busy. Aurora was watching a movie on Netflix, Chris was playing the Wii, and Abby was asleep. I wasn't breaking my rules. Well, after about 20 minutes I was really into the blog post and Aurora decides she wants my attention. Reverting to bad habits I either half-listened to her or told her to wait while Mommy finished reading. Once I realized I was doing this (about 15 minutes later) I got off of the iPad and focused on the kids again. A small slip-up, but one that I at least caught and corrected.

I plan to continue putting my kids desires before my own, but I also want to add something more to my super-mommy list for tomorrow. I want to stop getting mad at my children. Kids make mistakes, that's part of growing up and learning right from wrong. If they never did anything wrong, well, they wouldn't be human. So why am I always surprised when they do something they're not supposed to? Correction and appropriate discipline are necessary, but I don't need to become upset. They respond better to a calm, patient, rational response anyway. Anger and frustration are selfish responses, portraying myself and flawless and them as flawed. I don't want them to get that impression at all. I'm not perfect, and they're not expected to be perfect. We only gain perfection through Jesus Christ.

Thank you, Jesus, for today and the improvements I am making for my children.

Super-mommy Steps:
1) Stop obsessing about cleaning
2) Play with my kids
3) Stop getting mad at my kids

Ok, one thing I have to brag on. Today while the kids were playing in the pool Chris told Jordan and I that he wanted to get baptized. At first I didn't think he was serious because I was recently baptized in a swimming pool and figured he was just wanting to mimic me. His comment stayed with me, though, so I asked him later why he wanted to be baptized. He said, "Because I love God and want to be with Him forever". Aw! He then melted my heart when he asked me to be the one to do it. Absolutely! I am so proud of my little boy. He has such a good heart and loves to pray. In the past I would have said that 5 years old is too young to know what it means to give your life to God. With Chris, though, he knows what living like Jesus means and talks about it all the time. He knows what he's doing :) My little boy is growing up.

Jordan, Aurora and Chris enjoying the pool.