Eat, Pray, Love: The Mommy Version | My 3 Little Birds- Reflections ...

This summer I set an intention to do things differently at home. I?d enjoy my family. Learn more about the little people I?m raising up. Say yes more than I say no.

So how?d I do? Well, I?ll get to that.

June, July and August have always been a challenge in my family. When I was a working mom, I felt a crushing guilt that my boys spent their summers in daycare, instead of eating too many popsicles and running through sprinklers in the yard. After all, didn?t they deserve a ?summer break??

When I started working part time, I was obviously home more but to my great surprise it didn?t get any easier: it seemed that when I was home I was thinking about my clients and when I was at work I was thinking about my kids.

And that first summer I spent as a stay at home mom? I think you already know how that went down.

This summer I started a new chapter? working from home as a freelance writer. I was determined to make it work.

I lined up childcare, four days a week, three hours a day. I thought that would give me enough time to get the parts of my job that require intense focus out of the way, and then I could manage the less intense tasks with my children around. It worked beautifully.

Then my babysitters quit with no notice (they worked together part time and were both promoted to full time, which was great for their resumes but not so great for me).

Already halfway into the summer, I knew that securing in-home childcare for just 6 weeks was a long shot. So after I cried and stressed out and lost sleep, I decided that I was just going to have to deal with it.

I did.

Several years ago a good friend was blessed with a surprise baby through adoption. With two children home already, one of whom was just 6 months old, she was understandably overwhelmed. One day I took her a bag of groceries? toilet paper, milk, some canned soups and the ingredients for a few basic meals? and sat with her on her porch as our babies played.

She described feeling stuck. Immobilized.

Just look at the child who?s closest to you at that moment, I told her, and ask yourself this: How does this person, this child, need me to take care of him right now?

I went on: Then, just do it.

I remembered my own advice about taking each child, each day, one by one by one. It became our summer of Eat. Pray. Love.

I focused on the basics? feeding their bodies, minds and spirits, and feeding mine. We got through it. We survived.

We slowed down. I let them have space when they needed it. We wore pajamas all day sometimes and ate directly from the cereal boxes, and they ran wild in the backyard when I needed a break. It wasn?t quiet, and it wasn?t always fun. There were time outs and times I raised my voice. My house was a mess. I fought with my husband. I stayed up too late writing and resented the sunrise.

But today, on the last weekday of the summer, I?m taking a moment to reflect on what worked even when it didn?t go as planned.

I was given a gift this summer, wrapped up in a test. I?d intended to make it a summer of yes, and was it? Yes. It was.

Source: http://my3littlebirdsblog.com/2012/08/eat-pray-love-the-mommy-version.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=eat-pray-love-the-mommy-version

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