Embracing the Messiness

It wasn't an atypical night at our house. I walked into our room at night to find this.

One of my sweet little mothers had tucked her doll in snugly next to my pillow.

Then I saw that the crib looked like this.

"Buddy" the stuffed dog was snoozing soundly.

And everywhere I went around the house I found more signs of our daughters' loving care of their toys--nestled in beds or cuddled in corners. It was pretty darn cute.

I must admit that some moments I don't think it's cute at all to find dolls and all their trappings all over the house. Sometimes it's just one more thing that didn't get put away before bed. And when those one more things add up, I at times feel exhausted and grumpy.

Other times I can at least appreciate how cute it is before pushing the kids towards bed at the end of a long, loud, busy day. 

But sometimes I can pause long enough to realize that my house won't always be filled to the rafters with toys, noise, and laughter. 

And in those moments I just want to hold my kids tight and pray in my heart that they will start growing up a little more slowly. I want to embrace the messiness of my current stage of life and thank God once more for the privilege of motherhood and the joy of the four sweet children He has given us. 

Yes, it is noisy. Yes, it is exhausting. Yes, it is messy. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. 

25 Family Game Night Ideas

The family that plays together stays together. We've all heard that, right? (We've also heard that the family that prays together stays together. Equally catchy, every bit as true, but not my topic of focus in today's post.)

There are few things I love more than playing with our family. I love going to parks in the summer and watching Cameron chase the kids up, over, and under all the equipment in crazy games of tag. I love swinging with them and going down slides. I love pulling out board games to play together. Special bonding happens in these moments--it's the stuff that happy family memories are made of.

But I've also noticed that if we don't schedule it, it won't happen. Too many other things can crowd our calendar and trump just having fun together. We try to keep one night each weekend set aside for Family Fun Night. Sometimes we'll just watch a movie, but it's often more fun when we play. Here are some ideas we've tried and loved:

25 Weeks of Family Fun

1. Play sardines--you know, hide-and-seek where everyone tries to find the hider and when you find them you stay there till everyone is crammed in one little spot together!

2. Crab soccer--a little game of kick ball where everyone does the crab walk

3. Keep away--one person in the middle tries to get the ball while everyone else throws it back and forth to each other.

4. What time is it Mr. Fox?--Someone is chosen to be Mr. Fox and everyone else calls out, "What time is it Mr. Fox?" Mr. Fox responds by saying "3 o'clock" or "7 o'clock" or "10 o'clock" and everyone takes that many steps. When everyone is close, Mr. Fox responds by saying, "It's dinnertime!" and tries to tag someone to be the next Mr. Fox.

5. Water gun fight!

6. Indoor snowball fight--fill a laundry hamper full of folded sock balls and have an indoor snowball fight!

7. Flour fight--fill knee-high nylons with flour and tie them off, then go out in your backyard and have a free for all! (You don't need many flour bombs because each can be used over and over. And when you're done you can store them for another time. This makes for messy laundry but great pictures!)

8. Basement mini golf--set up a mini golf course in your basement.

9. Relay race--we've been known to set up relay races in our basement when it's too cold to do it outside, and it's every bit as fun.

10.Sharks and minnows

11. Marco Polo--one person is blindfolded and calls out "Marco" and everyone responds with "Polo". "Marco" tries to catch someone to be the next "Marco". This works great in the yard but sometimes in the winter we clear a room and play it inside and it's great.

12. Charades

13. Bake cookies together

14. Have a Disney sing-a-long (or whatever other songs you like)

15. Pudding painting--give each person a cup of pudding, a plate, some utensils, and whatever decorations you want and let each person paint something on their plate

16. Basement bowling--set up a pyramid with cans or even TP rolls and go bowling

17. Make gingerbread houses out of graham crackers, frosting, and whatever else you have on hand

18. Play a board game.

19. Take a picnic to a park--or sit on your floor with a picnic blanket and watch a movie

20. Dodge ball

21. Build a blanket fort and read books together

22. Build pyramids or other structures with marshmallows and toothpicks

23. Put together a puzzle.

24. Hide and seek

25. Have a play dough sculpture contest--make some play dough and have a sculpture contest!

Weighing in the Balance

It was morning and I needed to get the kids going on their schoolwork. We had pushed hard all week, so there wasn't much schoolwork left to do. But I still wanted to push through a little bit more.

Unfortunately for my responsible side, my kids were playing spy club together and it was really cute. Loaded down with lots of weapons (you know, magnifying glasses, binoculars, nerf guns, and the like) they romped around the house and hid from the tickle monster (yours truly). I couldn't help feeling grateful that I can homeschool and give them extra time to play together and build happy childhood memories with their siblings.

It was fun to see them playing. But I kept having to wrestle my conscientious side into submission. Life with kids around is all about striking the right balance. When the house is messier than I like, I remind myself that they won't remember if the baseboards were clean but they will remember if I played with them and read to them.

When the house is too noisy I remind myself that in 30 years when my house is quiet and clean, I will miss this stage of joyful chaos.

But when they have to do their schoolwork, I have to remind myself that in 30 years if they didn't master a few basics, they will be irresponsible bums. Hmmm. Back to the grindstone.

Of course, reading, writing, and 'rithmetic are critical life skills. They must receive due attention.

But then again, loving relationships and joyful play are critical life skills, too. We don't receive grades on them. But if we were better at them this world would be a happier place.

To everything there is a season, 

and a time to every purpose under heaven...

a time to weep, and a time to laugh; 

a time to mourn, and a time to dance...

Work and whimsy. Practice and play. Diligence and daydreaming. Grunt work and giggle fests. We need both. We have time for both.

The trick is in the balance.

Hold Those Scholarship Applications

Grace and Abby wanted to go play outside, and we were looking for Grace's winter coat. We searched high. We searched low. We searched every logical place (and a few illogical ones for good measure). Our search was fruitless.

Me: "Grace, if we have to buy you a new coat you'll have to do some jobs to earn some money to pay for part of it."

Grace: "But Mom, if I give you my money I won't have enough money to pay for college!"

Who knew I was raising such a financially aware 3-year-old?

Fortunately Abby said a prayer and found Grace's coat a short while later.(Three cheers for sensible older siblings!)

Looks like Grace can put those college scholarship applications on hold for a few more years.