Don't wait until everyone is crying to start making dinnner

It's Sunday so I should be able to relax, right? Not if your a mother. Every one still has to eat. So here I am, Sunday afternoon, relaxing, typing on my computer ( as the children say) not really in any big hurry to get anything done. Then it hits. One starts crying because she bumped her chin. I pick her up and talk to her. She still keeps crying. Then I realize brother's crying because sister won't pump up his bike tire. I put the baby that I was nursing down to help the other two. Now I have three children balling at the top of their lungs. Nothing seems to passify them.

Okay, they probably just need something to eat and then pop into bed with a good night kiss from mother. I start scrubbing potatoes. I try to help the two-year-old that bonked her chin but nothing helps. Help! Dinner won't be ready for at least half an hour. Now someone pounded someone else. So now I have her sitting on the time out chair wailing her woe. Then I get the hicups. Here I am with...hic...four boobing babies and I'm...hic....trying to get them...hic...something to .....hic.....eat. Then I ....hic..... trip over a ...hic... can on the floor. Finally ...hic... the potatoes are....hic.... on. The gravy ....hic... is started ..hic.... Just keep a .....hic... steady nerve ....hic... and every thing will be....hic... fine in a minute.

Then my ...hic.... husband ...hic.... comes in. "Why is every one crying?" What a sweet heart. He takes all four of them for a ride. Ah! peace and quiet. I get me a drink and the hicups leave. I finish making supper. All is well again.

What can I learn from this? Don't wait until all the babies are crying before you start to make dinner. Plan Ahead, even on Sundays.

Learning Games

Every day we learn whether we want to or not. For example, I decided my husband could do the laundry as pay back for digging holes in our sandy back yard with his new track hoe. What did I learn? My husband does not know how to do laundry. Now I could go through a lot of agony to teach him, or I could just do it myself. Or(good idea) I could teach the children to do the laundry. They're the ones that played in all that sand and brought it into and all over the house.

So now I just need to figure out how to make learning how to do the laundry fun. The first step?
Act like it is fun. If I enjoy it my children will see me having so much fun they'll want to join in.

The second step- let them help. My two year old loves to put the clothes in and out of the washer, dryer, baskets, etc. My four-year-old discovered a great game in sorting clothing into lights and darks. If she finds laundry lying about the house, she'll come running to see which batch it goes in.

So much for learning fun. I'd better get started on my 8+ loads of laundry now. And maybe learn some time management and discipline techniques at the same time.