Typically, I do not have a problem with spending some time with him cuddling and then rolling right over and going back to sleep. Waking up between 8-9am suits me much better. Today I was restless, I tossed and turned and I finally just gave up and got up out of bed. My mind is normally filled with what feels like a zillion thoughts running at once, so this morning was no different than any other morning. Well, with the exception of my mind working overtime this morning. I had so much going through my head and a list a mile long of things I want to get done today that it was just impossible to even try to go back to sleep. I got up and managed to get some laundry folded and put away and I got another load put in the washer. I also put some dishes away and then Kya woke up. Thankfully, after some cuddles with Mommy and a little bit of crying, she fell back asleep.
I must interject here by saying, I absolutely love and respect my husband for waking up at around 4:20 am five days a week (on one weekend a month he does it for seven days), to go to his job and provide for our family. I know without a doubt by the end of this day I am going to be dragging and I know he feels the same way after each day is finished. Yet, he continues to do it because he loves his family and he knows God gave him the responsibility to provide for us. Thank you for doing that for us Rick!
Back to this waking up early thing. I was struck with a rather strange thought this morning. It has to do with the steps in our house leading up to our second floor. If you could see them now, and much to my shame you will soon because I took a picture of them, you would see that the bottom steps are filled with things just waiting to be taken upstairs. Call this a bad habit or a good one (I would probably be more inclined to say a bad one because of safety reasons), that is the place I temporarily put a lot of things that need to find their way back upstairs.
Let me stop here by asking a question: Have you ever thought about how much of an impact you have in your children's lives in every area? A lot of us as parents know that the greatest person to impact a child's life is his or her parents. We know how important it is for us to be a good model in the way we speak to each other. We all know they imitate many of our actions too (sometimes we wish it wasn't the case when we have that first revelation that our child learned some of the "bad things" he or she does from us). I must admit I have never really thought about how they imitate our actions in so many different areas of our lives- some may be trivial and some more important than others. But, due to an experience last night with Jaden, I had a thought this morning- modeling things to our children goes beyond showing manners, it goes beyond showing love to each other, beyond being kind to one another, beyond asking and showing forgiveness, beyond helping one another. It can even be shown in the way we run our house and how organized we are in it.
Now, I am going to stop right here and say I am not blessed with the ability to keep every area of my home organized at all times. Sadly, I must say I can't even say half of the time I have it organized. But, for me that comes with the territory of having three children- and when you have multiples- yeah, I quickly learned I am one person and I can only do so much. I am trying to get better at it and I am trying to get things out of my house (and slowly it is happening). I desire to have that happen so I can spend less time taking care of things and spend more time with my husband and children. I desire for a balance in all this too. I don't want to find myself going to an extreme by making my husband, children, or I feel like we can't live in the house and have fun. Yet, I have spent some time organizing different areas of my house and it is amazing how much better it has made me feel. It is hard to explain, but it makes me feel like at least some of my life is not as chaotic.
Back to the steps in our house. Last night, I asked Jaden to take his computer up to his room and put it away. He walked over to the steps and placed it on one. I might add he was also getting ready to walk up the stairs to go to his room so he could get dressed for bed. I heard Rick ask Jaden, "What did Mommy ask you to do and did you do it"? I was listening to this exchange between the two of them and Jaden was able to repeat back to Rick exactly what I asked him to do. Rick then told him he needed to listen to me and take the computer up to his room. I asked Jaden if he was going up to his room. He told me, "Yes". Then I asked him, "Well, don't you think it is a good idea to take it up now since you are going up there anyways"? He told me, "Yes". I could almost laugh about this all now as I am typing this out, except there is a lesson to be learned here and it is one that my five year old is teaching me.
There are so many more occassions that have come to my mind where I have told Jaden to put something away and he has followed my actions and rather than taking it upstairs he places the item on one of the steps. He then tells me, "I will take it upstairs later or I will take it up the next time I go up". Yeah, um right, I know him very well. He will forget and not even "see" it sitting there. It will not make it up to his room unless I make him listen to me and follow through at that moment when I ask him to take something up to his room. At this point, this is where I am humbled. He will usually give me a "reason" as to why he can't take it up. I usually only have to ask him one more time to please take it up to his room and he will do it. I am fully aware that he could look at me and say, "But, Mommy, you put things on the steps too and you don't take them up right away" (those of you who know Jaden well know that day will probably likely come soon because he has no trouble saying at all what he is thinking).
I just want to interject here that I love Jaden for so many reasons, but one particular reason stands out in my mind in regards to this stairs habit of mine. (And really, it did start out with good intentions behind it: my reason for doing it was to save myself some trips and carry everything up at once). *I admit though it has probably gotten a little out of hand.* Back to why I love Jaden though- recently, I remember getting tired of all the things on the steps so I put everything away. When I got downstairs, Jaden looked at me and he said, "Good job Mommy for putting everything away on the steps". Yes, I must admit after I told him thank you, I did laugh. In my mind, something like that should not matter to him, but I have been drilling in his head he needs to put his stuff away (this does at least confirm to me that he does listen to me about this most of the time). I am also realizing how much he needs to know that he is making me happy when he does put things away, especially when he is doing this without me even having to tell him. As parents, it is so easy to focus on "negative" behaviors and forget how important it is to praise our children for the positive behaviors we see them doing (maybe I am the only Mom who easily forgets this). It is definitely an area I need to work on! He is a child who has good intentions and I am realizing through this just how much of an influence I do have over my children- in every area of their life. I am realizing that just like I make mistakes and need time and room to grow, he likewise needs time and room to grow. My expectations of him often times are set to high.
I can see in the simple things, like modeling the action of putting things back where they belong, that my area of influence over my children is great. I am thankful for a son who teaches me these little things. I don't always like to acknowledge that he learned this thing and that thing from me- especially my habits that are less than great. But, I am so thankful he has an innocent way of teaching me areas I need to work on (at least for now). I have a long way to go in this area of organizing, but I truly do hope that when I go to put that next item on the step I think twice. Or, at the very least, if it is not safe to take it upstairs right away (and sometimes it just is not with how much Kya and Sierra are on the move now), I hope I remember that it should not be sitting there for days at a time. Now I must end by saying, I do like how the empty steps look (I took some time during the writing of this to put the things that were on the steps away).
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