the essence

A Good Day

I classify today as a good day. Yes, there were tantrums, discipline, crying, but, the day as a whole went quite well.

If I really want to try for a "good day" there are two things I can do in the morning:

1.Exercise
2. Read the Bible and spend time in prayer

I can't control what the kids' demeanor will be like but I know that my own attitude is usually much better if I take the time for just those two things. It's totally worth getting up a little earlier. In fact, no matter how you schedule the rest of your day, whether you're at home with your kids or going off to work, I admonish you to incorporate those two activities into your wake-up routine.

Of course, I'm finding it much easier to wake earlier since we've scaled back our work hours. It feels like such a weight off of our shoulders. I still really had to drag myself out of bed when my alarm went off at 6 this morning - Clay was up 3 or 4 times last night! I think he was hungry - he's still usually okay if he doesn't eat much in the way of solids & yesterday we were gone so much & home late from church last night that, other than nursing, he barely ate anything. I think he kept waking up hungry. Then, he woke up completely soaked through his diaper. When I got him up this morning he had four mosquito bites on his face! Poor kid.

As far as work, we've really scaled back. I'm working 6-midnight tonight & tomorrow, but, that's all I have scheduled this week. Ray only has 12 hours scheduled, too. It really is a huge relief. Yesterday we both commented how nice it was to be able to spend Sunday afternoon together & go out as a family.

Addison is doing really well today, yesterday was when I could really start to tell a difference. The surgeon had told us she'd want to run around but that we'd have to stop her. Yesterday she kept running & jumping in the evening, totally freaking me out, as I was trying to get her to stop. She still complains of a little pain at times but overall she's fine. I'm just trying to get her to stay calm (ha!) & to keep she & Kate from provoking each other (again, ha!).