The never-ending colds with kids

If you're like me, catching up with friends and their kids in winter seems so difficult at times. Someone's always sick. My girls have been sick on and off most of this winter. Had to phone my friend this morning who I've been aiming to have over for a couple of weeks. Her kids are sick too. Poor Lucy's still not well, trying to figure out whether I should take her back to the Dr again or not.

A couple of weeks ago I read this really helpful, practical post by Jean. I love that I can sit with my girls and cuddle them when they're sick - this morning the house looks like a bomb's hit it, cereal all over the floor that I desperately want to clean up, and we need to take the car to get repaired. Time to let the real priorities surface as Jean suggests - I want to love my girls! Yes, the car needs to be repaired, but the floor can wait.

Parenting & Contradicting Emotions

"It's the best of jobs. It's the most difficult of jobs. It can bring you the greatest joy. It can cause the greatest pain. There is nothing as fulfilling and exhilarating. There's nothing so depleting and exhausting. No area of your life can make you feel more like a success when everything is going well. No area of your life can make you feel more like a failure when things go wrong.

PARENTING!

The word itself can bring contradicting emotions to the surface."

From Stormie Omartian's "The Power of a Praying Parent" Chapter 1


Lots of friends have been writing comments on Facebook about their kids starting pre-school. One shares that she thinks she enjoys it as much, or maybe more, than her kids. Another shares how she cried the first day her son went. I can relate to both. Shed many tears leaving the girls, but love it when I get to see them again in the afternoon and hear about all the fun things they've done with their friends... and I get a chance to do other stuff as just Alison, not Alison the Mum.

Hanging in there... just

I actually posted this on my other blog not long before I created this one, but thought it was worth reposting here for anyone who missed it.

Yep, it's a demanding, full-on job being a Mum. There are times I've felt so overwhelmed. Even now my youngest is sitting on my lap having just wee-d all over the bedroom floor trying to 'help' me on the computer. Then comes the tantrum for some unknown reason. She also wee-d all over her sheets, rug and pillow this morning too - the joys of toilet-training.

I've been listening to this CD by Steven Curtis-Chapman in my car this week, and every time I hear this particular song, I think all Mums should hear it. So here it is. Steven shares how he came to write the song before singing it, I found it really encouraging.

Hope it encourages you too - hang in there Mums, you are changing the world one heartbeat at a time.

One Heartbeat at a Time

You're up all night with a screaming baby
You run all day at the speed of life
And every day you feel a little bit less
Like the beautiful woman you are

So you fall into bed when you run out of hours
And you wonder if anything worth doing got done
Oh, maybe you just don't know
Or maybe you've forgotten

You, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh, you, you may not see it now
But I believe that time will tell
How you, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time

With every "I know you can do it"
Every tear that you kiss away
So many little things that seem to go unnoticed
They're just like the drops of rain over time
They become a river

And you, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh, you, you may not see it now
But I believe that time will tell
How you, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time

You're beautiful
You're beautiful
How you're changing the world
You're changing the world

You, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh, you, you may not see it now
But I believe that time will tell
How you, you are changing the world
Oh, I believe that you
You are changing the world
One little heartbeat
At a time

And you're changing the world