It's all about the interruptions

 I've got some little helpers when I make lemonade.  Both the middle and youngest are wanting to help squeeze the lemons now.

 Between making food with "help" and breaking up fights or snuggling the baby the dishes usually look about like this.  My perfectionistic husband rarely admits that the messes in the house bother him, but I sense his stress when he's home and I've just got to keep reminding myself that the kids and school and teachable moments are more important than keeping up with the cleaning right now.

 We've been having a lot of sweet moments in the mornings over breakfast and our tea parties.  The littlest is always so excited to pour her own tea with her own tea pot.  Notice her "tea towel" place mat?  One Saturday the P. Hubby stressed out a bit over her pouring the tea back from her tea cup to her tea pot.  Now, if you happen to be dealing with a little perfectionism yourself or struggle with helping the 2 year old (or older) too much, let me remind you to take a step back.  Are they throwing anything?  Spilling on purpose? Observe before you react.  I personally have to remind myself to have some patience when I'm in a hurry, but these nice tea times have been a good start to our days in a slower more purposeful manner than what we had before.  The girls don't drink all the tea, but I get to keep filling up my travel cup and enjoy the chai all day long!  Making the tea bag stretch.

 Speaking of interruptions we had a lovely one last week.  The weather had actually cooled enough that the girls could play outside our apartment in the afternoon.  They sat out on the sidewalk outside my kitchen window to chalk while I started dishes.  The cool turned to a storm though and they had fun with their umbrellas outside!  The thunder was too loud for the littlest though so she watched from inside and plugged her ears when the thunder boomed.  I never used to like rain much but here it's such a welcome relief from the continual heat and having to stay inside!  After the rain stopped I took them outside to splash in puddles!  Did the dishes get done?  Eventually.  :)

 This morning my oldest decided to do some patternables on the stove with her little sister.  Sweet little teaching moment they had all on their own while I made our breakfast.

 The other side of the younger two's fold out craft table!  It has wheels so we can just roll it around when they want to chalk on the chalk board.

Someone keeps closing the piano, but I really like to leave it open!  I want the girls to sit and plink on it whenever they feel like it.  -- fostering creativity and spontaneity.  :}

So I've been contemplating how to set up a visual type "schedule" rhythm sort of chart for our days.  Partly for me, but mostly for my oldest who always wants to know what we are doing next and even for the P. Hubby for when he's home on the weekends to (hopefully) keep his stress level down.
But the problem is that whenever I try to pin down what we actually do each day I feel overwhelmed by how much it is. Yet when we are in the days it usually doesn't feel like too much.  Only when I have a list and am *trying* to get a certain thing done does it feel frustrating with all the "interruptions."  I keep thinking about how Jesus acted in regards to interruptions.  The children that were brought to him that the disciples tried to keep away and Jesus wanted them to come.  He welcomed the interruptions because people are more important than projects.  When the woman with the flow of blood for years and years touched the hem of his robe he stopped right then to talk to her.  She was more important than rushing off to the next thing.  Also note how Jesus would go off by himself to pray and recharge from the crowds?  That's important to remember too.

These days it takes a lot longer to do things than it did at one point, but that's okay.  The things that are really important will get done, but that moment when the baby wants a hug and snuggle or the 5 year old wants to show you her latest art or the 7 year old asks you a question starting with a long drawn out "Mommy?  Weeeeellllll..........."  -- those are the moments that are important.

Maybe we shouldn't call those moments "Interruptions"  -- Maybe we should start calling the cleaning and the dishes and the food making and all the other urgent tasks that us stay at home Moms have to do the real interruptions.