I have always believed that every moment counts and being involved and present with the kids while they are kids is important as they grow so fast but my #MentalCleanse #30DayChallenge is really making me more aware and appreciative of the fact that it's the little things in life that make a great day and that the kids will cherish.. I am taking a lot more notice of ALL the little things..
And that's why today, over everything else I want to tell you about my day..
Nothing was done as originally planned, and I'm not sure I met all the steps of my challenge today but I did hit a important one to me Appreciation and it made it a fantastic day...
I'm warning you now this is a long post but I really wanted to write all about it for myself to serve as a reminder
Again I woke with a headache, the kids were bickering, we were late taking the girls to school, I didn't get that blog post written up, or vacuum, or finish the dishes, or get a proper dinner organised (we ended up having leftovers) and the house was left in disarray by the time I was done for the day! But it was one of my best days! Why you ask well here goes...
The kids made their own breakfast (yes there were spilt and burnt oats on the stove that's going to take a good scrub to get off),
Leila was given the chance to make her own choices in the clothes she wore just the same as Naite (we tend to let her most days but I guess I take it for granted) as well as today the food she took to school, she was determined to take an egg I was able to help her understand it had to be cooked first then gave her the opportunity to cook it. She also chose to take a vegemite sandwich, yogurt, a banana and cut up chesse (it was great to see that given the opportunity to make her own lunch at 3 and 1/2 she still makes healthy choices, even if it was a fair chunk of cheese lol) she had Naite help her rather then me which made both of them feel important and responsible. Once we were finally ready to leave the house we walked/balance biked/penny boarded to the girls school as that's what they wanted to do (I grabbed mine on the way out the gate too) Naite and I dropped the girls off and they both went off for a fun day. Naite and I then rode/fumbled (that's all part of learning) our penny boards home! At the very start of the trip home Naite lost control of his board and stacked straight into my ankle that will teach me for trying to exercise lol now I'm going to be hard pressed to exercise for my 30 day challenge! But, the end reward was completly worth it as this was one of the things Naite enjoyed about the day (not the hurting me lol but the having me ride a penny board with him) such a simple thing, really being present and joining him in doing something that he enjoys. He was able to feel proud to show me the things that he could do and was able to learn new things from someone else such as gaining control and different ways to improve balance. We got home and spent some more time just playing around on the boards till it started to bucket down with rain.
I had told Naite that I would spend sometime out with him mucking around, but then I had some jobs I really wanted to get done, if he let me do them then after that we could take Charlie and our penny boards to the park. Once it started to pour rain we joked that it was my signal I should get some work done. He really wanted to do some cooking at some stage too, but I didn't feel up for the extra mess and time it would take and was thinking maybe he could help make dinner and be involved in the meal plan I wanted to start creating.
He had some morning tea and went off to play. I started writing out the post I had really wanted to get done and trying to recover photos from my old hard drive. I stopped for a break to re focus and Naite came out for lunch by then, he was very eager to try out an experimental recipe he had for weetbix that he had written up yesterday (I'll post a pic of it later promise) and he had been continually asking to make all different kinds of food so I said ok and let him go!
Once he had finished his ummm.. let's say cooking, and was out of the kitchen, I emptied out the freezer to defrost it and started on my giant pile of dishes I wanted to get through. Naite ate his lunch concoction that he had added soy sauce to because he apparently left it out of the recipe and was insisting on making the fortune cookies he has wanted to make for so long that I can't remember out of his show off book. I thought about it while I was doing the dishes and all I could think was really are the things that I had planned for the day that important to do right now, I should take this opportunity to let Naite do something he has chosen to do with me and has wanted to do for a long time and put everything else aside so he can have something to add to his memories of childhood
It's something he has wanted to do for ages, he has been talking about cooking all different things, it's the school holiday's and it's not really that often we get a whole day to ourselves.
So then and there, dirty dishes in the sink, freezer half done, blog post unfinished, meal plan still unstarted and no dinner organised. I decided I would forget about the things I also wanted to do for the day and instead spend all the time doing what Naite wanted to do. I gave him free range in the kitchen and consciously let go of the fact it that it will make a mess, might not work, contains a bit more sugar then I would normally allow in a recipe and just had fun enjoying the opportunity... It was fantastic not only did he have fun and learn some new things about cooking, he really concentrated on following the recipe, but he was also proud and excited to give Leila and AJ theirs when they got home as gifts and share rather then keep it all to himself!
It extended to letting him create dog biscuits for Charlie with the leftover egg yolk, after playing with it of course and (as I was making AJ and myself our green smoothie later in the day) his own first ever green smoothie, which he loved and now wants to have several times a day lol
It turned into a beautiful rainy day and I had previously planned to let Naite watch a movie while I finished the things I wanted to get done, instead I found 'Back To The Future' and knew he would love it I put it on and told him about how I used to watch this movie and he would love it.. It didn't take much convincing as it came up with Steven Spielberg's name on the screen and he started jumping up and down that he made Jurassic Park we watched most of it together, only stopping to go and pick Amelia up from school, once back we finished watching it while laughing together at Amelia dancing to the music in the movie. Once it had finished the rain had settled down and he was eager to go back out on his penny board so off he went and that's when I just pottered around the house with Amelia till AJ came home! The excitement that Naite had to tell Dad about his day proved even further that it was all worth it.. Amelia showed off how much further she could walk and her guitar skills and Leila was excited to tell us about her day. We had a completly unorganised but chilled afternoon and dinner. Once it was their bedtime routine I sat in the room with them for a while and just chatted about how great the day was and I hope we can all have just as much fun tomorrow.
Later Amelia and Leila were very restless going to bed and wanted extra comfort and attention but my rekindled awarness made me savor the moment and my ability to be able to comfort them.
I saved the things I had to do and the things I wanted to do until later when I wasn't going to miss anything and the kids didn't overly need me. I felt so good I even took some extra time not only to write this but to draw purely because I wanted too!
And even though I am sore, tired and had little sleep I feel at peace, calm and very, very happy. I love my family and noticing those little moments is making me appreciate the little things they do for making every part of my day great and enjoying every moment good and bad!
And that's why today, over everything else I want to tell you about my day..
Nothing was done as originally planned, and I'm not sure I met all the steps of my challenge today but I did hit a important one to me Appreciation and it made it a fantastic day...
I'm warning you now this is a long post but I really wanted to write all about it for myself to serve as a reminder
Again I woke with a headache, the kids were bickering, we were late taking the girls to school, I didn't get that blog post written up, or vacuum, or finish the dishes, or get a proper dinner organised (we ended up having leftovers) and the house was left in disarray by the time I was done for the day! But it was one of my best days! Why you ask well here goes...
The kids made their own breakfast (yes there were spilt and burnt oats on the stove that's going to take a good scrub to get off),
Leila was given the chance to make her own choices in the clothes she wore just the same as Naite (we tend to let her most days but I guess I take it for granted) as well as today the food she took to school, she was determined to take an egg I was able to help her understand it had to be cooked first then gave her the opportunity to cook it. She also chose to take a vegemite sandwich, yogurt, a banana and cut up chesse (it was great to see that given the opportunity to make her own lunch at 3 and 1/2 she still makes healthy choices, even if it was a fair chunk of cheese lol) she had Naite help her rather then me which made both of them feel important and responsible. Once we were finally ready to leave the house we walked/balance biked/penny boarded to the girls school as that's what they wanted to do (I grabbed mine on the way out the gate too) Naite and I dropped the girls off and they both went off for a fun day. Naite and I then rode/fumbled (that's all part of learning) our penny boards home! At the very start of the trip home Naite lost control of his board and stacked straight into my ankle that will teach me for trying to exercise lol now I'm going to be hard pressed to exercise for my 30 day challenge! But, the end reward was completly worth it as this was one of the things Naite enjoyed about the day (not the hurting me lol but the having me ride a penny board with him) such a simple thing, really being present and joining him in doing something that he enjoys. He was able to feel proud to show me the things that he could do and was able to learn new things from someone else such as gaining control and different ways to improve balance. We got home and spent some more time just playing around on the boards till it started to bucket down with rain.
I had told Naite that I would spend sometime out with him mucking around, but then I had some jobs I really wanted to get done, if he let me do them then after that we could take Charlie and our penny boards to the park. Once it started to pour rain we joked that it was my signal I should get some work done. He really wanted to do some cooking at some stage too, but I didn't feel up for the extra mess and time it would take and was thinking maybe he could help make dinner and be involved in the meal plan I wanted to start creating.
He had some morning tea and went off to play. I started writing out the post I had really wanted to get done and trying to recover photos from my old hard drive. I stopped for a break to re focus and Naite came out for lunch by then, he was very eager to try out an experimental recipe he had for weetbix that he had written up yesterday (I'll post a pic of it later promise) and he had been continually asking to make all different kinds of food so I said ok and let him go!
Once he had finished his ummm.. let's say cooking, and was out of the kitchen, I emptied out the freezer to defrost it and started on my giant pile of dishes I wanted to get through. Naite ate his lunch concoction that he had added soy sauce to because he apparently left it out of the recipe and was insisting on making the fortune cookies he has wanted to make for so long that I can't remember out of his show off book. I thought about it while I was doing the dishes and all I could think was really are the things that I had planned for the day that important to do right now, I should take this opportunity to let Naite do something he has chosen to do with me and has wanted to do for a long time and put everything else aside so he can have something to add to his memories of childhood
It's something he has wanted to do for ages, he has been talking about cooking all different things, it's the school holiday's and it's not really that often we get a whole day to ourselves.
So then and there, dirty dishes in the sink, freezer half done, blog post unfinished, meal plan still unstarted and no dinner organised. I decided I would forget about the things I also wanted to do for the day and instead spend all the time doing what Naite wanted to do. I gave him free range in the kitchen and consciously let go of the fact it that it will make a mess, might not work, contains a bit more sugar then I would normally allow in a recipe and just had fun enjoying the opportunity... It was fantastic not only did he have fun and learn some new things about cooking, he really concentrated on following the recipe, but he was also proud and excited to give Leila and AJ theirs when they got home as gifts and share rather then keep it all to himself!
It extended to letting him create dog biscuits for Charlie with the leftover egg yolk, after playing with it of course and (as I was making AJ and myself our green smoothie later in the day) his own first ever green smoothie, which he loved and now wants to have several times a day lol
It turned into a beautiful rainy day and I had previously planned to let Naite watch a movie while I finished the things I wanted to get done, instead I found 'Back To The Future' and knew he would love it I put it on and told him about how I used to watch this movie and he would love it.. It didn't take much convincing as it came up with Steven Spielberg's name on the screen and he started jumping up and down that he made Jurassic Park we watched most of it together, only stopping to go and pick Amelia up from school, once back we finished watching it while laughing together at Amelia dancing to the music in the movie. Once it had finished the rain had settled down and he was eager to go back out on his penny board so off he went and that's when I just pottered around the house with Amelia till AJ came home! The excitement that Naite had to tell Dad about his day proved even further that it was all worth it.. Amelia showed off how much further she could walk and her guitar skills and Leila was excited to tell us about her day. We had a completly unorganised but chilled afternoon and dinner. Once it was their bedtime routine I sat in the room with them for a while and just chatted about how great the day was and I hope we can all have just as much fun tomorrow.
Later Amelia and Leila were very restless going to bed and wanted extra comfort and attention but my rekindled awarness made me savor the moment and my ability to be able to comfort them.
I saved the things I had to do and the things I wanted to do until later when I wasn't going to miss anything and the kids didn't overly need me. I felt so good I even took some extra time not only to write this but to draw purely because I wanted too!
And even though I am sore, tired and had little sleep I feel at peace, calm and very, very happy. I love my family and noticing those little moments is making me appreciate the little things they do for making every part of my day great and enjoying every moment good and bad!
♡ Mummy Madness
