“Like plants if we are not growing we are dying.” Ellen G. White paraphrased

Since first reading this it has become my motto. I try to remember it when new and challenging circumstances are presented to me. My not so new but challenging circumstance this week is a teething baby while in the midst of multiple development stages including but not limited to learning to talk and walk. My youngest darling has been clinging to me to such a degree that the only way I am making it through the day is getting out the old baby carriers which hadn’t been used much since she reached her independent stage.

Nights have been really difficult. Add to that a crazy schedule with 1 conference and 1 fair this week and 2 stories for the newspaper I write for a deadline for the next paper and you get the picture.

Oh then there is grocery shopping and keeping the house in order. Last night about 7:00 I was finally ready to crash. All I wanted was to veg out in front of the TV. But then I had a gentle prodding, this is the time I set aside to turn off the TV and spend the evening with the children winding down. It was the last thing I wanted to do. But if I am going to make raising children my priority then it needs to be just that even if it is not convenient.

So off went the TV. We had dinner and a bath, then what to do in the last hour before I had to pick up Proeun? A game? Yes that’s it. I am not so good at this area but I remember “hot potato” and figured it was one we could all play. Then Two wanted to play bowling, but what to use for pins. Then I remembered plastic cups we had downstaitrs and we bowled. Then the cups became soldiers in a line and something to balance on your head.

Or not.

Mavis’s favorite was stacking the cups up, not a popular activity with her brother and sister but what can you do?

Then Two said we need a needle and string. It was great to see him coming up with ideas but we were out of time unfortunately.

In the end it was a wonderful evening and totally worth it getting out of my comfort zone and stretching myself a bit.