Making the best of a mess!

  I am blessed to have 5 beautiful and healthy children. There ages are 16, 9, 8, 6, and 5 and while I am thankful beyond words that God has entrusted them to my care some days get overwhelming! Today has been one of those days that you just knew from the first hour things were not going to go as planned. Overslept, had a kid in the bed with feet in my face and missed my devotion time and that was just before getting out of bed!   
   Then, our planned trip to the $1 summer movie express was canceled, because I forgot I had scheduled an appointment for Brandon at 9 this morning! Next, the doctor's office called and asked if we could bring Dakota in at 1:45 instead of 3:20 for his 8 year well check, and I quickly agreed. I wanted to get the kids out of the house, but in a cool spot since the heat index is so high today so we decided to rush to story hour at the library after Brandon's appointment. The kids had fun at story time, and enjoyed adding their hand prints to the garden fence. All was going well and then we stopped at the store to buy some things to bring home and make lunch. That is when the well-mannered, straight-line listening ears on little ones suddenly turned into what would look like an uncontrollable half of a ball team to those without children!
   Let me clarify, they were in no way being "bad" for a lack of a better term, but had definitely had a major change in attitude and were feeding off each others' attitudes. I started to get frustrated, but somewhere in the back of my mind I heard that still, small voice say "The choice is yours." At first, I was like "what". Although, I knew I wasn't the one pouting because I had to get out of the van or the one who was having a complete tear-filled melt down because mom was buying the bowtie shaped pasta instead of the elbow macaroni for lunch, somehow the choice was mine....
   I then realized, wait for it......, the choice was MINE! I am the parent, I am the adult, I can choose rather to get frustrated with the children and gripe, complain and yell or I can take a stand and get our day back on track! So, i chose the latter! I got all the kids home, and as I made lunch I called and rescheduled the 1:45 doctor's appointment, ate lunch with the kid's and pulled out the I'm the MOMMY card and declared nap time! Yes, I know they are older and don't usually take naps, but today after watching my children's behaviors change so drastically in a 15 minute span I knew something was up.
After an exhausting few weeks, these kids were overly tired and needed rest. It took some less than twenty minutes and all four littles were asleep and all was right in the house again! Mommy has had time to clean up from lunch, sit and enjoy her daily devotion and set up this blog!
    This day was just a reminder to me on how important it is to know your children. I could have easily gotten frustrated with the kids, took them all tired and cranky to sit in a little doctor's room for what was sure to be a lengthy visit and made us all miserable for the rest of the day. Instead the quick prayer used to start my day helped keep my level-headed and keep control of my little ones' behavior.
     People without children, well and some parent, do not always understand how a parent doesn't do this or that when their child is not acting as others think they should. As a parent we must remember to be patient and kind with our children. We must remember we are the adults and make decisions that our best for our children. So please, if you see me out and about with my kiddos understand I may not parent the way you think I should, but I strive to be the best parent God wants me to be. A parent that is caring, compassionate, slower to anger and being a great example to your children and others around you.
      Hope you have a blessed and stree free day!