Something that has never come naturally to me is home organization. I see my friends houses and have asked them for tips, browsed Pinterest, and have even made charts. I do believe I have gotten somewhat better, but my house still looks like it rarely gets cleaned or organized. It does help a bit that I have children that are old enough to clean up after themselves now. But most days I find myself frustrated at the end of the day that there are Legos under the couch {some times even under my painful foot}, there are books that are not straight, the couch cushions are upside down, there is a pile of dishes {again}, a pile of freshly washed clothing to be folded... and I just want to walk passed it, sit down on a comfy couch, and crochet! And some days, I do just that.
Another thing that I have never been good at is potty training. Yes, we have five children and I have never had any success in potty training them. After months and months of fails, my husband steps in and potty trains them in a few days! I am currently potty training our 19 month old daughter {and by currently I mean for the last 3 months} She has gone on the toilet twice. TWICE! But I am determined to potty train at least one of our children. So I am not letting my husband step in this time.
Homeschooling.. oh boy. Yes, we chose to home school, and although we have a pretty easy system {A Beka Academy on DVD.. and I barely have to do anything} I still lose my patience. This is when I tell myself, we can't learn to be patient without being tested. I still have days when I just want to quit, but I know how important education is, and not just education, but knowledge. Most days I keep pressing on. But there are some days when I just say, "Alright boys, mommy is done for today! We are taking the day off!"
And my worst offender is time management. Today I read this somewhere, "Time management is a misnomer. It's impossible to manage time. Instead you must manage yourself within time." And I am horrible at it. I sit down to browse Facebook or Pinterest or watch one episode of a tv show, and three hours later {or 3 episodes later} it's lunch time and lunch is not even close to being started. I have gotten much better at managing myself, but there are still days I slip up.
So, just because you see or hear someone talking about all the great things they do with their families or homes, remember that we all have our battles that we fight. Just because you aren’t homeschooling or cloth diapering or making your food from scratch, doesn’t mean you can’t pat yourself on the back for the good things you are doing. So many of my friends are doing good things, that I wish I were better at. Like keeping a spotless organized house, or cooking a fresh meal three times a day {we do leftovers at least once a day here}, or going to school, or taking their children on field trip once a week. So don't call me superwoman and don't try to be one yourself. We can do anything, just not everything.
I like this :) And it's true, we all have our strengths and weaknesses.. It's nice to be able to learn from each other and see where there's room for improvement. Personally, I've decided that the things that are important to my husband should become my priorities as well. I used to say that keeping my sanity is more important than a spotless house and my hubby would get pretty unhappy about things not being as clean as he wanted.. it was a constant issue between us. Until one day I just decided that it's my job to make HIM happy, not myself.. so I rearranged my priorities. Some things which I think are more important than a clean house just had to go on the back burner, and these days my house is pretty much always clean even though it often seems impossible. But hey, my husband is happy, he really appreciates it.. and I've learned that I actually really enjoy the cleanliness too! (Not saying you should be trying to keep your house cleaner.. lol.. just kinda bringing up my own experience and what I feel is important: making your husband's priorities your own priorities)
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean! That is the biggest reason I want to be more organized. For some people it is nothing harder than breathing, I however have to put in real effort to do what comes so easily to others.
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