I know I have so much to learn about life, and mothering and managing a household - but one thing I do know for sure is that it requires a lot of effort and energy to keep all the plates spinning. You can push out a really hard-effort-day and get caught up in a lot of areas, but if you fall for that old lie that you deserve to rest on that success, it won't be long and you'll be scrambling all over again. Things pile up. And they pile up quickly. I am convinced that it is much, much easier for a pile of laundry, bills, or dishes to appear than it is to make those very same things disappear.
In a busy household of boys, it is very much the norm that I feel like I am behind. Spending a day to push all of the laundry through the cycles and when they all undress at the end of the day there lies another load of dirty laundry! You just get dinner cleaned up and they are circling back for snack. It is the natural flow of life.
When I stop and take the time to think about it, I have to simply accept that although I do want to grow in my home management skills, and need to, I will not change the natural flow of life around here! Even with all the newest pinterest ideas, analyzing of whether I am a piler or a filer, creating systems and strategies to tackle the mundane, it is all going to repeat itself. Piles happen. I need to face that fact. But I also know that the days zip past and my boys outgrow their clothes and wear out their shoes and lose teeth and start new grade levels and learn more words and new skills and they change and grow and change and grow. All so fast.
I want to remind myself to prioritize my time with my boys. To set aside the "household tasks" in order to listen to them talk, to laugh with them, to play on the floor. It can be a challenge to get everything done but I want to be present when they are with me. Truly present for at least a small moment in each of their days.
All of the other piles just may have to wait because right now I have a pile of boys worth my full attention!
Um. . .that is just the sweetest post! Piles are my LIFE. . . .and when I think "I'll create a giant pile of all of the little piles so I can tackle it" in walks . . .LIFE. . .and piles get quickly put into bags to be gone through later and well. . .then there's just a pile of cloth bags filled with papers or clothes or crafts or whatever else, to be dealt with. . .but they wait. . .and babies don't :)
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