Motherhood: the art of a million tasks and a messy house!

I pondered this week what I would write about as I bent over for the 20th time that morning to clean the crumbs and spilled smoothie my toddler threw on the floor  before the dog cleans it up….sigh… that was one expensive organic green smoothie and gluten free cookies! If I knew it would end up being dog food I would’ve just given him some crackers! But I must persist with providing adequate nutrition for my son because I worry. I worry about his health, of course, his physical and emotional development and I know nutrients are key to both physical and brain development. In the midst of my worry and pondering I feel this sudden pounce on me, my son decided it was funny to jump on my back and pull my hair while I clean up his mess. It’s 8am and already I’m exhausted and haven’t even made my own breakfast or fed the dog or taken the dog for a walk, or brushed my hair or put the laundry on…..and there are toys everywhere , a pile of laundry to fold and put away and why is this kitchen so disastrous!

I could feel myself losing patience, getting annoyed, feeling tired and wanting to lose it. I could  hear the teachings of Janet Landsbury author of “No Bad kids: Toddler discipline without Shame”…”your toddler will give you plenty of opportunities to practice calm yet assertive discipline, they are not there to cause you stress , they are learning about their boundaries and need calm leadership…..”

Suddenly my sisters wise words earlier that day hit me...

Motherhood: patience of a monk, stamina of a gazelle, wisdom of a jedi master.

I feel it’s turned into quite an art to constantly be cooking and cleaning yet never get anywhere, the house is in a permanent state of mess and you are busy all day achieving …well not much!

It’s easy to feel like motherhood is too much and overwhelming because of this constant scenario of chaos and trying to be the calm in the storm…and I am not always good at being the calm in the storm! But I have to say as time goes by, you get better at it and you find you can actually start to get a bit of you time and achieve some personal goals…like writing this blog! :)

Slowly learn to embrace the chaos, embrace the crazy because one day you realise that phase is over and the house is quiet and you miss your crazy! I’m sure most mums can agree when their little dears are finally asleep for the night and you go in to check on them, you feel it’s all worth it and you realise you love them so much. It’s an overwhelmingly satisfying and joyful feeling.

Until they wake up and it’s morning again (or night time still!) and it’s crazy again!!

Until next time then…be patient like a monk, have the stamina of a gazelle and bask in your jedi wisdom!