30 Day Mom Challenge: What 30 Day Mom Challenge??

What?!?!  I’m supposed to be keeping up with a challenge?  Oops!  I have nothing but my feeble mind to blame…I can’t remember anything these days…really, sometimes it worries me that I care for 3 small children.  It’s not that I forgot that I am supposed to be doing this challenge…it was more of a “don’t forget to look and see what you’re supposed to be doing to day” and then as I fall into bed at the end of the day I realize that I forgot to look and see what I was supposed to be doing that day…for the past 9 days.
Soooo, let me go back and see if I happen to be doing any of these things anyway…
Day 12:  Pray for wisdom in mothering your child.
This is one that I’m trying to do daily.
Day 13:  Do not criticize your child today.
This one makes me have to stop and think.  I don’t think I criticize my children directly (at least I hope that I don’t), but I know that I need to be more aware of what I say about them…especially when they’re near because Macy hears when we don’t even realize she’s listening.  I want my voice to be encouraging to them.
Day 14:  Remember that being a mother is a gift.
Being a mom is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it’s definitely a gift and I wouldn’t exchange this gift for anything else!
Day 15:  Be firm when needed, but not harsh.
There’s no excuse for being harsh to my kids, but I know there are times when I am…for example, yesterday.  I took the kids to the park to have a picnic with one of Macy’s friends (let me preface this story with the fact that I got about 3 hours of sleep the night before).  The first 3 minutes we were there went really well, then another mom looked down and Steven was standing in a fire ant bed.  Praise the Lord that she noticed him because we were able to grab him and get his shoes and all of the ants off with him only getting 4 bites (and the tough little guy never cried…I got one bite and was whining about it).  After that, the rest of our day at the park consisted of Macy (who was overtired) crying at least 3 times for different reasons, Steven continuously wandering off toward the road, Steven crying when his lunch was all gone, Logan crying because he was hungry.  Once it was time to go, Macy screamed most of the way home because she either wanted or didn’t want to listen to music or maybe she wanted to listen to a particular song…I couldn’t figure it out.  So, by the time we got home it was 2:15.  The kids were exhausted and cranky, I hadn’t eaten breakfast and Steven ate most of my lunch so I was starving with a headache and I was an hour and a half off on pumping.  Macy refused to go to the bathroom.  Steven was screaming because he wanted to put his shoes back on and Logan was screaming because he wanted to go to bed.  I lost it.  Harsh might even be an understatement.  It was probably one of my worst mommy moments of all time, but even in my harshness God used Macy to soften my heart.  I was mad when I went to get her out of timeout.  She was still crying, but as I put her on the floor getting ready to strike out again, she said, “Mommy, I want a hug.”  Who would want to hug me in that moment?  I wouldn’t want to hug me, but my sweet little girl with her unconditional love wanted a hug.  I sat on the floor and hugged her tight and cried.  She just let me hold her like she knew that was exactly what I needed.
I hope that I never forget that moment…especially in those times when it would be easy to be harsh.  These children that I’m blessed with are precious.  Their hearts are tender.  They need a mother who is firm.  They do not need a mother who is harsh.
I’ll catch up some more tonight (hopefully)…maybe one of these days I’ll even get to post one day at a time again…maybe. 😉