Thankful for Day #11

... for outside inspiration/motivation via complete strangers. In the past couple of days whether it be via talk radio or blog reading, I have come across a theme that is deeply resonating with me.



Earlier this week I was listening to Dr. Laura. [yes, I listen to Dr. Laura and I LOVE her! Sometimes I do have to take what she is saying with a grain of salt, but for the most part, I think she is right on the money with her advice. I think her standpoint on putting children first is excellent and I wish more people would listen to her.] She was either reading an email or tackling a call from a woman who was trying to her best to keep her house clean & be on top of the everyday duties and then was feeling bad because she didn't have the time to just play with her kids. At one point Dr. Laura asked her, "Would you rather be a bad housekeeper or a bad mother?" Let me tell ya ... a wake up moment for me! I am by no means a domestic goddess. But I do find myself telling my kids no when they ask me to do something or play something because of the laundry list of things I feel I need or want to get done. Straightening up the kitchen, putting a load of laundry in, paying the bills, etc. And then ask me what I do when they go to bed. I watch my DVR'd shows. I read my blogs. I play on the internet. I think I can reprioritize a few things so that I can say yes more often.



Then today while listening to whoever comes on after Dr. Laura these days (you can tell KFWB is experimenting with the 3:00-4:00 hour because for the past 3 weeks they have changes hosts each week). It was a woman and a man. The woman deems herself a "relationship expert". Hmmm is all I have to say to that. But anyways, I wasn't totally listening but my ears perked up when I heard the man saying something to the effect that we have such a short amount of time in our kids' lives to make an impact. That they won't remember the dirty dishes in the sink when they grow up but they will remember that you took time to teach them something, or play a game with them. I swear I almost started crying just thinking about the fact that there will come a time when my girls won't want to do anything with me. And the opportunity to play, be silly, make messes with them will be forever gone.



And then to top it off, today I was looking at The Idea Room's blog because I am doing a photo shoot for some friend's tomorrow and knew I had seen some photography tutorials there. One in particular was about decorating your home with portraiture. Yeah yeah yeah! Pictures are nice. They make a house a home. We need to get a lot more up in this here house of ours (it's only been 2 years since we moved in). But then I saw a tip about specifically putting up pictures of your kids and one of them with you (the parent) by their bed. That kids seeing pictures of themselves and ones of them with their parents is a surefire way to instill good self-esteem. Duh! Makes perfect sense. I never in a million years would have thought about this. But I am SO thankful that I read it.



My goals in the next couple of days is to dig out any pictures of myself with each girl, Joel with each girl and some family shots and get my house plastered with them. And to also say yes more than I say no to the girls and to surprise them with some fun activities. Maybe to let my sink pile up with dishes for a couple of days. Maybe to have races in the front yard instead of worrying about sorting out the junk mail and getting it into the recycle bin.