I’m glad so many of you enjoyed Karen Ehman’s post yesterday on organization! I loved reading everyone’s posts.
I’m definitely a Take Charge Tina with a little bit of Perfectionist Polly thrown in for good measure. I already made an adjustment in how I approached my family last night because of Karen’s wise words!
The winner of our giveaway is Jacalyn Bohman! Congratulations Jacalyn! Karen will be emailing you to get your address so she can send out your prize!
If you’re not Jacalyn, I still have good news for you! Hearts at Home is offering Karen’s book, The Complete Guide to Getting and Staying Organized, at a 30% discount during the month of January and February! To get the discount, use the discount code HAPPYHOME when you check out in the Heart Shoppe!
I got the sweetest email yesterday from Heather who heard me speak on Tuesday in Crystal Lake, IL. During that message I shared about the concept of choosing the important over the urgent. This is a concept I’ve shared before on the blog. You can find a previous post on it here.
I asked Heather if I could share her “important over the urgent” moment with all of you and she was kind enough to say yes.
May you and I be both encouraged and challenged by her story.
At MOPS yesterday, the speaker, Jill Savage talked about choosing the IMPORTANT over the URGENT. This has stuck with me.
Last night, it was 6:00 or so, and I was getting both kids into the car to come home from the dentist and dinner. It was getting to be a late night already for Lillian, and she was squawking. I was frazzled from minding them both through a dinner at the mall, hustling Nathan into his car seat, snipping at him to not splash in the slush because it would get his shoes and pants all wet and COME ON HURRY UP ALREADY!
But then I remembered Ms. Savage’s words. And it only took half a second of thought for me to realize that the real reason I was rushing Nathan was because Lily was squawking. I was putting the urgency of a baby’s fussiness ahead of the importance of four-year-olds getting to splash their feet in the slush. And honestly, would Lily squawk any less if we took one minute for slush splashing? And did I actually care AT ALL about Nathan’s pants getting wet at the end of the day? No, no, no, absolutely no on both counts.
So I buckled Lillian in, got Nate out, apologized to him for my own less-than-stellar attitude, and splashed in the slush together with him until he was done. We laughed at how sucky it felt on our feet, and tried to see who could make the biggest stomp, and said “wooooooooooo it’s sliiiiiiiperyeeeeeee” while wiggling around. It only took a minute or two. Lillian just sucked her thumb the whole time.
It was totally a GOOD thing to do with my kid, and I am so glad that I had heard Ms. Savage earlier in the day, and that her words had stuck with me.
Wow – I don’t have a story to tell, but Heather’s comment sure did convict me! Thank you, Jesus for that! (And Heather and Jill!) I am constantly rushing/hustleing/nitpicking my almost-5-year-old daughter because my 6 month old is fussing. How unloving of me to put that ahead of my preschoolers need to splash and play and see what it’s like to step into snow that goes to her knees for just a few minutes! Life changed so much for our daughter when our baby was born and I need to remember that just because she is the older sister now, she is still a preschooler with needs to be loved, to explore, to have fun in ways that will grow her and encourage her. Thank you so much for this today! I really needed to read it!
Stephanie,
I’m so glad that was helpful for you. That is the VERY reason I shared Heather’s email!
I can so relate~ As a mom to a 8, 6, and 1 year old My husband and I were really losing quality time with the *bigger* kids. –Feed the baby, change the baby, rock the baby, play with the baby–(which is all wonderful of course) We found a great solution: the past 6 months we started putting the 1 year old to bed by 8:00 so we could play games with the bigger 2. It’s such a special time for us! We pop popcorn and play cards at the table 😉
Thanks so much for the encouraging words…I just found your blog via a friends suggestion.
Ally, welcome! I’m so glad you found us and jumped right in! I love the strategy you shared! It’s a great idea for dealing with more than one little one.
Love you and Karen Ehman! I was at Hearts at Home in San Diego about 4 years ago and it meant so much to hear both of you there when I had my 2 year old (now he’s joined by two younger sisters 🙂
I have an important over urgent happening RIGHT NOW in my house. My four and six year old have been doing the typical fighting back and forth, tonite at the dinner table. It seems “urgent” to get dinner finished but my husband was smart and took “important” to heart. He told them dinner was over and put them both in the bathroom together for 15 minutes. It’s been about 10 minutes…I think they will think twice before messing with each other tomorrow at mealtime 🙂
Love it!
Just like the rest of the world, the education system in India too has it’s own advantages & disadvantages.
The 10th standard and the 12th standard exams are quite crucial as they are kind of deciding factors for a career. Hence the students as well as parents go through a lot of stress.
Reading your posts like this one & on parenting & ‘Yes Mom’, has helped me a lot. I stay far away from go-getter parents as well as totally laid-back ones.
Sudden requests from my 14 year old daughter to sit on my lap when theres so much left to be done, request to accompany her at 10.00 pm to fuss the neighborhood cats when I can’t stand cats from one mile apart, share her earplug to listen to her kind of music when I would have preferred to have some quiet time by myself & to get under her quilt and have some pillow talk with the lights off when I could finish my ‘before bed routine’ have enriched my motherhood experience.
I ree..a..a..lly thank you for these posts. Now, if you could just tutor me on-line of how I could make a quilt of these memorable moments just like you made with t-shirts, I would be eternally grateful to you.
Viola,
I just love how you bring other cultures into our conversations here! Thank you!
I will be posting step by step instructions on making a memory quilt in the the next few weeks!
That sounds great Jill, thanks.
I did post some comments since last year when I first came across your blog & wondered if you ever read them. With this reply, I’m sure you do. Thanks again.