The Two Best Things I Do Every Day

I'm in a parenting "season" right now, where every single day just seems super difficult.  Not sure if it's the age Gunnar is at, or if he's just an especially difficult child, or if I'm doing a crap job of parenting him,  or I have some sort of hormone imbalance that's making me especially irritable, tired, and impatient, or WHAT.  I just know that at the end of almost every day lately, I'm feeling a bit worn out, defeated, and guilty (guilty, because I've spent the better part of my day griping at, scolding, correcting, and disciplining Gunnar). That's not what I WANT to spend my day doing.  I WANT to have fun together, play, cuddle, you get the idea.  At any rate, there are two things I started implementing a while back, and when all else fails in our day, these two things remain so SO good.

1) In the mornings, during breakfast, we have a little daily devotional time.  We pray together, we say his memory verse from class, I ask him what he thinks the verse means (sometimes he provides me with an excellent explanation.  Other days, he says random things like "I love my friends", or "do the right thing", which, to his credit, ARE things we've discussed in the past, but, bless his heart, have NOTHING to do with the verse we're currently discussing), and then we read a story from his Jesus Storybook Bible.  At the end of the story, I try to give him some practical application from what we've read, and we talk through ways he could implement it during the day.  The whole thing doesn't last any longer than about 10 minutes, but I seriously think it's the most important, and purposeful, thing that I do all day long.  I want Gunnar to grow up going to God's Word FIRST for direction.  I want it to be familiar, and relevant to him.  I want him to see God as a real person in his life, who loves him, and who has important things he wants him to know, and do.  Gunnar literally NEVER sits still, not even for meal time, but he actually genuinely enjoys this time we spend together in the mornings, and because of that, he miraculously sits (somewhat) still for it.  I learn a lot from it, too!  You can't read a story to your child about Joshua marching around the city gates of Jericho, and how God expects us to obey Him even when it seems hard or crazy, and then not feel convicted yourself about how well YOU'RE obeying God, even when it seems hard or crazy.

2) We have "rocking time" right before he goes to bed at night.  Up until just a few months ago, after dinner, I'd clean up the kitchen, while Nason basically took over all of Gunnar's bedtime routine (bath, PJ's, and putting him in bed).  Recently though, Gunnar decided he wanted ME to take him to bed, instead of Nason.  Nason and I were both a bit bummed by this at first.  Nason, because he enjoyed being the one to tuck Gunnar in. Me, because I enjoyed knowing that as soon as dinner was over, I was "off" for the day.  My bubble bath awaited me.  However, I have come to LOVE and look forward to "rocking time" as Gunnar and I both refer to it.  We've settled into a ritual (I've decided I'm a "ritual" kind of girl).  We sit in his rocking chair and talk about our day, and recount all the things we did.  I pick one thing I think he did especially well that day, and really talk it up.  We sing a few songs.  We pray together.  It is SUCH sweet time, and I wouldn't trade it for anything, even my bubble bath (which I still have, just 15 minutes later).  I know there will be a time where he either doesn't want me to rock him anymore, or he's just too big for me to rock, and then I'm going to miss this time, so I cherish it while I have it.

So there you go.  The "daily devotional" time is over by about 8:45 am.  The "rocking time" starts at about 7:15 PM.  Everything between 8:45 am and 7:15 pm may be an absolute disaster, and fail in every way possible. I may have pulled all my hair out, found a mini pile of  Gunnar poop on the kitchen floor, forbidden Gunnar from speaking for ten minutes "while Mama's ears rest for a while" (that actually happened today), and been tempted to pour myself a stiff drink at 2 in the afternoon, but those two special times, are truly "the two best things I do every day".