Disconnected

I've decided that one of the struggles of motherhood that I often experience, particularly as a single mum with young kids, is feeling disconnected. Disconnected particularly in relationships.

The last few months I've finally been taking the girls to Sunday School consistently, but some weeks it's been a real struggle. I've often ended up either staying with them in Sunday School or taking them home early. Other weeks they've been OK till close to the end so I've had to duck out of the service early - it's all just a part of being a parent I guess. But I find that as a result I often feel quite disconnected.

I long for the day that life will be at least a little more predictable, and I'll hopefully feel a bit more connected.

Proud

Today I'm feeling privileged to be a mum. It's so exciting seeing my little girls grow into the unique people God's made them to be. Despite my many mistakes as a parent, there are times when I feel really proud to be their mum.

Last night apparently Sarah was explaining to my mum that I won't let her have cow's milk anymore - only once in the morning, and once at night - other than that she can have water, soy milk or juice. I read recently that cow's milk can sometimes contribute to constipation so decided to try reducing her milk intake. She went on to say that this made her cranky. Yay!!! I'm so proud of my little girl - she's learning to express her emotions in a healthy way.

Hooray for Stick Figures

I'm so excited - Sarah's started drawing her first stick figures! As she draws the faces, she explains who each one is and tells all kinds of stories about what's happening for that person - whether they're happy or sad, and why. It's so cute. Yep, I love being a mum.

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.

Wouldn't it be funny if...

I've heard many mums say that they wished they'd enjoyed their kids more when they were little. There's always so much to be done. It's too easy to get so preoccupied that we forget to enjoy the time we have with our kids. We all want our kids to know we love them, but I know for me, sometimes my priorities may not show them that - sometimes cleaning up the mess first seems more important, where actually sitting down with them and reading them a story should be more important. The mess can wait!

Nicole shared some great tips on enjoying our kids more, based on a book she's been reading. One is to create memories - I want to be more intentional about that, about spending quality time with my girls.

I remembered this book that I loved when I was a kid called, 'Wouldn't it be funny if'. My brother and I used to love it so I kept it. I'm going to read it with the girls when they get home tonight. I think they'll really appreciate it now. The boy in the story thinks up all kinds of things that would be funny, like 'if people got dressed to go to bed, and went to school in their pyjamas' and 'if you could teach your teachers, and tell them off for giggling'. No doubt they'll probably make up some of their own too. Should be fun and lots of giggles.

Any other ideas for creating memories?

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.

Your experience as a Mum in one word

A friend once bumped into me at the shops not long after having Lucy, my second baby, and remarked, "It's a unique stage of life". Quite a good description.

Unique.

If you could use any word to describe your experience as a Mum, what would it be?

I realise it's not a word, but supercalifragilisticexpialidocious comes to mind for me - thought I'd google it, and of course there's no dictionary definition. But here's what came up in my search, "Where did supercalifragilisticexpialidocious come from? Yes, From the famous Disney movie Mary Poppins. Though used in such a positive tone in the movie, it's a great over exaggerated way of describing a fun time or a person's character."

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

I usually like to keep things balanced - supercalifragilisticexpialidocious doesn't really incorporate all the difficult experiences and the struggles associated with being a Mum - but I'll go with this word anyway. Overall that's been my experience as a Mum so far.