Flow

I've been going to a great yoga class lately, which has me thinking about how to improve the flow of our days. My yoga instructor always talks about working with what you have, so that was on my mind this morning.

Hannah woke up at 5 a.m. - which is typical lately. It's not my favorite time of day, but considering that she's sleeping through the night, I can't really complain. Anyhow, 7:30 a.m. rolls around and she's looking ready for a nap. Meanwhile, I'm trying to rouse Aaron from his slumber to get him to school by 8:45 a.m. I carry Aaron downstairs, all the while he's crying, "It's not wake-up time. Everyone is still sleeping. Put me back in bed!" (Repeat.) And Hannah is fussing because she's tired. And I'm stressing because it's my work day. And if Hannah falls asleep in the car on the way to school, then she probably won't take her morning nap, which means I won't have any time to work. So I'm thinking to myself, "Why is this so hard? Why can't I figure out a way to make this work?"

Then it dawns on me - work with what you have.

I carry Aaron back up to his bed, turn his lights off, and turn on the CD of stories he's listening to. Then I put Hannah in her crib and tuck her in. I come downstairs, leave a message that we would be late to school, and get to work.

I got about 45 minutes of quiet time in before Aaron got up in a much better mood, asked for breakfast, and then went to play by himself in the basement. (Yes!*)

This is my new realization about being a mom: You have to make hundreds of little decisions every day - decisions that affect how much sleep you get, your health, your kids' moods, your mood, how you spend your time. Not to mention the big decisions: Should I work? Where should we live? Which school? What's our philosophy on TV? Junk food? Discipline? Etc. Etc. The decisions are what make it hard work. And a lot of times, you don't make the best choice. Heck, a lot of times, you can't even see the best choice. Which is why it pays to go to yoga.

* Lest I falsely make it sound like we had a perfect morning: When I woke up the baby to finally get Aaron to school, she had wet through her clothes and the crib sheets because I had finally got back on the cloth-diaper bus. (That was the third cloth diaper she wet through that morning. So we might be off that bus again for a while.) I had already buckled Aaron in the car to try to maximize Hannah's sleep-time, and I was planning just to scoop her up and bring her straight to the car. So when I finally got back to the car with a dry Hannah, Aaron was crying because he thought we forgot about him. Some days are just designed to teach you patience.

Anyway, enough of this blathering on. More photos of cute kids coming soon.