Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Ch. 1 Life on Planet Mom

So, every year our MOPS group gets a book to read, a guide for us to follow in our activities and devotionals and whatnot. Mostly I don't pay attention, this year my book didn't arrive in my hands until nearly December. So not surprising I wasn't following last year.
This year, I've taken up reading again. I was motivated by one of my fellow MOPS mom's who I saw reading it during the Sunday School hour, she said, she'd just started it, and found it really Good! Intriguing.
And like last year's book, it has chapters with Deep Thought Provoking questions about motherhood, and ME. I decided to blog about it again, if only for my personal reference, but also because it gives me a few moments mostly to myself when I write. I need some Me time to be a better mom.

One of my favorite quotes in the corner of this chapter was this, "I take one night away per week, one day away per month, one weekend away per year." I can take time for myself, and return refreshed and ready to be the best Mom I can be!

1. What has been the most significant physical challenge you've faced as a Mom?
Obviously the answer would be Chris, and all his colon issues. From the beginning, there were the surgeries, but that seemed so fixable compared to where we are no. I have happy dreams of him being potty trained, and going like a normal boy. But it is Emotionally Draining and Physically Hard, he's especially hard lately to change a diaper because his cheeks can clench and his legs are STRONG when he wants to kick me for insisting on Cleanliness. For Me personally: The deterioration of my physical health. It bugs me that I could never lift Chris up over my head for more than a second or two. Or when my back goes out, and the only thing that works are drugs and sleep, which render me incapable of taking care of the kids. I'm finally coming to grips that though Chris can surive without a nap, Mommy can't. It's so Frustrating.

2. How have you grown emotionally as a Mom? I feel things deeper. Like a switch I can go from reasonable woman to Crazy Mama Bear in a split second because someone looked at my kid wrong. Also, I used to hear on the news about these things happening to kids, and these horror stories, and now the news makes me cry. I pray for these families, for these kids, and for their parents, because I can't imagine the pain they are going through.

3. When has mothering been a mental challenge? How so? Lately, daily. They say not to pray for patience because God will send you instances when you have to exhibit patience. Seems that we've had a lot of those instances around here. I have to control myself not to lose my temper, and lately that has been hard. Chris's sunday school teacher taught them the phrase "Jesus helps Us" last week, and as we were getting Mr. Snips ready to go, she says to all of us, "Yes, Jesus Helps Us listen to our Mommy and Daddy, and Jesus Helps Us be good friends, and Jesus Helps Us not strangle our children."

4. What part of mothering has personally stretched you the most? As I write this, Sam is SCREACHING upstairs at Daddy, calling his pterydactyl army, he knows the magic combination of noises to twinge my spine like nails on a chalkboard. Yet he doesn't understand when I tell him, don't worry dinner is coming, or just a minute. Along those same lines, it's troubling when I can't tell if Christopher is yelling, "I CAN'T!" and I'm torn whether or not it's because he's got developmental delays and he really Can't, or is it because he's just being stubborn. Seems like lately it's the latter, and fighting with him stretches me pretty thin.

5. What do you hope as a Mom to learn to do better in the coming year? Discipline. Chris is just demonstrating that he understands a bit about cause and effect, and good and bad, and I just pray I can Discipline him, and guide him so that he will become a good happy Christian boy...man, without me killing him first. And Sam has just started getting into trouble these last few days, and I KNOW he doesn't understand why I tell him not to eat the table. I hope and Pray I can be patient with them.

6. How do you plan to take better care of yourself week by week. The quotation above sounds about right for being able to step away. I actually got out for 3 hours last Friday night to just sit and drink. Unfortunately, that's not happening this week. But, how lovely to get away for a weekend...oooo! Meanwhile, I've been taking time daily to blog, post my pictures, and read. They help me step away from the insanity a bit. Hopefully by continuing these things and using the quotation above as a goal, I can stay sane.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I haven't picked up the MOPS book yet, so maybe you've inspired me to open it! A friend from KY suggested a book called Positive Discipline, the 2 main words this book taught me were "Distract and Redirect", it took a while, but it worked. -Elizabeth