Friday, March 05, 2010

I Can't Do it All

My house is rarely ever clean. And by rarely I mean there has never been a time except when we did a walk thru when we first move in that every room in the house was spotless.

The problem is that I always get distracted by motherhood. Like as I type this Mster is lying on the couch battling death and asking me to read her stories and Lster is climbing off the couch head first begging me to "pull (him) up". FTR I've read lots of stories today and already pulled him up numerous times. Kster's finally asleep with his second nap. For his first nap I spent the entire time playing games and then doing science experiments with both of them.

So I just don't know how to do it all.

I wake up in the morning with great ideas of what I will accomplish housewise but the list is never done.

One morning this week I sat down for my 5 minute breakfast and was just about to get up and fold laundry for Kster's nap when Lster asked me to play flash cards with him. Lately he has been obsessed with learning. Its a good thing. Its a great thing. I have never been one to force learning on my kids. They just beg for it. I don't buy flash cards. Stuff like that just falls into our hands. These flash cards were a part of Mster's Valentine's Day cards from kids in her class and Lster loves them. (sidenote they are princess cards which makes me kind of laugh). So we sat down with our beans and practised adding and subtracting. He's been trying to figure it out for a few weeks now but it hasn't sunk in. This week it sunk in. He figured out how to add/subtract 0 and 1 and he learned how to add doubles (3+3, 5+5). FTR...he's 3. He's not even 3 1/2. And I just don't know what to do with him but hang out with him and keep teaching him stuff. But that means that my laundry area is perpetually covered in clothes. The bathrooms are not cleaned as much as they need to be and I often forget to think about dinner till 5pm.

I know that a perfect house is not important but I just haven't figured out the balance. Like how dirty is it okay to leave my house? or how many days in a row can I forget to cook dinner? or how often do I need to change my clothes when I get spit up on at least 6 times a day and so walk around the world with perpetual puke on my shoulder and leg.

And so my house will never be perfectly clean. It will not only never be perfectly clean, there wil always be a room that is in desperate need of cleaning. But my family is happy. My kids are polite, intelligent, funny, well rounded (but not perfect by any means and I can guarantee I'm ready to explode between 4-5pm everyday - that's another post) and that's what being a mom's about.

2 comments:

aunty L said...

I think you have the most delightful children and they thrive because of this focus you're describing.

I think it is really cool that Lster loves to learn!

sarah said...

Thanks for that. For a while today I lost perspective on this very subject. I now have it back.