When?

As I start to write this blog, there is only 8 minutes left of the first day of 2014.
2013 was a good year for me. My oldest daughter started Kindergarten, we were blessed with the birth of our third daughter, my real estate business really took off, I got a new car (one that fits 3 car seats!) and my husband and I just celebrated our 7th Anniversary last night. As I sit and scan through the Facebook status updates of all of my friends, family, and FB acquaintances, I notice the common theme of New Years resolutions that you would expect to see on the first day of the New Year. Most of the people who swore they would eat healthier, go to the gym, or read the Bible more, probably did today. As for me, as I finished putting all of the Christmas stuff away today and tried to get the house back in order, I focused on myself and tried to be really thoughtful of what MY resolution would be this year. And in this very routine act, I figured it out.

I started in my living room. I took the lights off the tree and my husband helped me carry it out. I carefully swept all of the pine needles (the baby is already picking up microscopic things off the floor). I dusted the furniture, put all of the baby toys away, vacuumed the rug, wiped the blinds, did all of the usual cleaning.  I headed into the kitchen to do the dishes and from there went into the girls' room to tidy up. When I finished in there, I started to walk to my bathroom when I caught glimpse of the living room again! All of the baby toys were out, there was ketchup smeared all over the coffee table, the dvds were pulled off the shelf, there were little choking size Trix cereal scattered all over the rug.  I absolutely lost it!   My 2 year old is a dumper. She dumps entire baskets out. All of them. My 5 year old can't make up her mind what she wants to do, so she does a little of everything.  I find myself all day running behind them cleaning this or that and all the while saying "Not right now, I have to clean up"..."Not right now, I'm folding the laundry"..."Not right now, I'm busy". "Let's do it later"..."We can do it tomorrow".....

And it hits me like a ton of bricks.  If not right now, then WHEN? When will my house be clean enough? When will I ever be caught up on the laundry (with 5 people wearing 2-3 outfits per day)? When will the dishes really ever be done? The answer is NEVER! But when will my daughters stop asking me to play Barbies with them, or to draw a picture, or to swing with them outside, or to eat their pretend pie they made just for me? Too soon. My 5 year old is asleep in the bed next to me right now and I can remember the day she was born as though it was yesterday, and now she has already asked me not to walk her to class anymore!  It doesn't help that all of my girls seemed to really grow up too fast, literally. My 7 month old is seemingly days away from taking her first steps already. 

So my resolution for this year is to be a "RIGHT NOW" mom, a "YES" mom. Not that I will say yes to everything, or never say "not right now" again, because honestly it will have to happen sometimes. But I will think a lot harder when I am up to my elbows in dirty dishes and my 2 year old says "Mom, can we play play-doh?" on which is more important at THAT moment.  I have to cut myself some slack.  The house doesn't have to be clean, the laundry can wait, the toys aren't hurting anything being left out. I've got 3 beautiful girls growing up right before my eyes, and we've got a lot of books to read, and Barbies to play.