Excerpt

Loved these paragraphs from one of the blogs I follow, Clover Lane:

I often find her words inspiring & reassuring.

Some days I can find fault with everything and everyone. Sometimes I get crabby and snappy for no reason.  Sometimes I feel overwhelmed when all the kids get home from school and are talking to me all at once.  Sometimes it seems like all the kids are fighting with each other.  Sometimes I feel like no one appreciates me, and the work I do every day.  Sometimes all I notice is the backpack thrown in the middle of the kitchen floor, the unmade bed, the broken rule, the messy counter, the bad mood, the careless put-down. 

I was at a short mother/daughter retreat with Abbey this Sunday and one of the retreat leaders told us a statistic about how many more times parents criticize their children, than say something positive to them.  It made me feel sick inside.  I know I am very sensitive to one tiny bit of rare criticism from my husband or children.  Dinner a little too salty?  New blanket itchy?  Why am I in a bad mood again?  I act defensive and my mad and my feelings get hurt immediately.  But I know in my heart I hand it out MUCH more easily than I take it in.  How would I feel if someone criticized or corrected me 10 times for every one compliment?  Awful.  AWFUL.  I know I have been pretty darn good at the criticism lately.  I have come by my Lenten resolution quite easily this season.

 But there are little reminders all throughout my life about why I should be so grateful every minute of every day to have the family that I have...that loves me unconditionally and does appreciate me, each in their own ways.  I love them all so much.  If I look for the good I always find it-of course I can find the annoying in there if I so desire also, but I find when I say thank you, when I am grateful, when I OUT LOUD appreciate the little things that everyone does to chip in and make this household run, those things magically multiply.  It's funny how that works.

I was in a real slump for a few days and feeling like I was killing myself for everyone and getting more and more tired. 

Having just returned to bed this morning at 6:20 (after Noah's 3rd feeding of the night) I woke up at 7:20 to the happy noises of the twin's breakfast. Steve had let me sleep as long as he could before he needed to leave for work-made breakfast for the twins and emptied and loaded the dishwasher (he knows that out of anything in the house, a dirty and cluttered kitchen really stresses me out) all while I showered and readied for the day.