Celebrate the Small Stuff

I’ve been MIA in the “Small Successes” world. Why? Because I haven’t felt one bit successful. On one hand, I’ve still been trying to do too much. But my overly ambitious efforts and ideals often result in me doing too little. When a friend recently called to see how I was doing, I suffered from severe logorrhea instead of giving the poor dear (who could use some encouragement) time to share her story. I’m behind on laundry. My preschooler described my legs as “furry” (thank goodness my hair is blond and not too noticeable except to petting hands). Yet, perhaps it’s when I’m feeling like a big flop that I need to celebrate the smallest of successes more than ever. So here they are:

1. I tackled the furry beast legs, and I shaved off a mole in the process (the mishap happened after the baby started to cry and my preschooler ran in to the bathroom to tell me the toddler was putting small things in her mouth). Holy moly that hurt, but it’s one less mole the derm will have to inspect during my August skin check appointment. (Another related success is that I finally got around to scheduling this appointment after my responsible husband got on to me about it.)

2. Instead of complaining about a husband-caused-clutter-of-a-closet, I cleaned it up. And I didn’t even gloat about the fact that I’d decluttered his mess. (Bonus points for Mom.)

3. I’ve been trying to go to bed earlier and have stopped thinking of sleep as a “waste of time” or a “luxury” and instead am trying to see it as a good-mom-mandate.

I made the decision to retire earlier this past weekend after I thought about how for my past three confessions, I’ve asked to be forgiven for being too impatient with my children when this really isn’t the root of this recurring pattern of petulance on my part. My impatience, I’ve observed, is directly correlated to my level of exhaustion, and my exhaustion was partly of my own making. I was skimping on sleep to do things that I thought were more important when, in reality, sleep is what I need most of all in order to be a gentle, patient mother (and, really, that’s far more important than some of the crazy things I was staying up late to do).

Since my little epiphany, our days have gone more smoothly, and I’m feeling less frazzled even when I do have a rough night with the baby. Actually, now that I’ve written that, I’m seeing that this isn’t a small success at all. Reordering my priorities and recognizing sleep as “me time” isn’t easy, but it’s a must right now.

Share (and celebrate) your own and other moms’ small successes at Faith & Family Live!