Everybody's got a job

We've had a long weekend, thanks to an ice and snow storm, so I've had my husband with me for four straight days. It has been so nice, and such a great help.

Tonight I am beginning to feel the anxiety of returning to normal life. It makes me want to point out to Scott how hard my job is, particularly at dinner time, when I just can't cook if my daughter is at my heels.

Then I realize he must feel that way often. Nobody does his job for him. He doesn't have a "work wife," and even if he had that kind of job, he'd still have just as much responsibility.

The one thing about being a mom, I guess, is that it never stops. I read the other day that we are on duty all day, and then on call at night. There are rewards, but it most definitely is a job.

Discipline

S.O.S.! Help for Parents

This title, snuggled into one of my bookshelves, seemed like exactly what I needed. I read the first half-dozen short chapters last night. They recommended rewarding good behavior and applying "mild" discpline to bad behaviors. One of these is called "active ignoring," where you ignore the child's bad behavior, and then as soon as they cease it, turn your full attention on them, rewarding them with your attention. I needed this help.

So many little things can ge me down. I actually got up early this morning to have a quiet time, which I haven't been faithful to do - I've let time/sleepiness get the best of me. I read recently that having a daily morning quiet time is the hardest but most important Christian practice.

And I've been reading a lot on worship lately, and trying to align my life with that priority. If I don't get up early and spend time with Him, it just doesn't happen - I get too down.

Ambience

Part of being a mom is getting used to a whole new set of silly sounds. When our daughter was first born we gave her this elephant that played music when you pulled on its tail. Its songs weren't familiar tunes but they soon became familiar to us, and other parents who had the same little elephant knew the songs, too. Her cradle swing had some soothings songs - one in particular - that we would hum along to. These days our daughter has lots of talking toys. One is a "laptop" that has a little song about how fun it is. It also says, "I like music," sometimes over and over again. She has a little playset on the fridge that has a song about mismatching the head and tail of an animal that I just can't reprint because of copyright. But other moms who have the same toy know the song - I just ran into one tonight. And tonight at dinner we heard a tinny alarm go off, and I figured out it was her temporal lobe thermometer, which she somehow plays with and had set the timer on. The timer is there to remind you to give your sick baby medicine. There are cries in the night you just get used to, and there are the sweet sounds - sweetest in the world is her laugh. There is also her cry - quite often inexplicable to me.

Worship, in the midst...

I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday - and I am not promising to do it absolutely every day - though I wanted to. My daughter is getting over an illness and it just took more out of me than usual to care for her. She just needed extra TLC; lots of holding, lots of my close presence while she was playing. And when deprived of these, for certain necessary periods, she would cry or fuss, which wore on my nerves. Consequently, not a lot of housework got done. The kitchen was a mess.

At night, I got to spend some time going over scriptures the Lord had used to speak to me in a prior season. I also got to read some of a book on worship. It was special time, enabled by my husband's taking care of certain things and overlooking others. I began to wonder, though, is it possible to worship the Lord in a dirty kitchen? I think yes, and no.

Yes, because authentic worship can happen anywhere. Paul and Silas worshipped in jail chains.

No, because a dirty kitchen impedes my ability to perceive the beauty of God's holiness.

Can worship take place in the midst of a day marked by doing chores? Yes. Should my whole life be about doing chores? No.

But chores need to happen, I'm finding out. Ordering my life is good; it helps free me up to worship the Lord in concentrated fashion. I hear Mary vs. Martha concerns all the time. The truth is I have to be somewhat disciplined in order to be able to sit at Jesus' feet. Certain things have to get done. There has to be space on the floor for me to sit, not covered in toys or cat hair.

My danger in becoming Martha-like is not that I'll do too many chores. I'm more likely to err on the side of too few chores. Not to say I don't get distracted. Usually it's on the computer, through e-mail or online social networking. I have to physically force myself to walk away from it and remember that "only a few things are necessary, and really only One."

I read this quote today that encouraged me to live life as sacred - every moment and every space.

"The way wholly loving God works out under the new covenant is in heartfelt obedience to the terms of that covenant ... not so much of a desacralization of space and time and food, as with a sacralization of all space and all time and all food: what God has declared holy let no man declare unholy." (D.A. Carson, Worship by the Book, 40)

There are a lot of ways I could conclude this post, but I just feel affirmed. If taking care of certain basic household needs is holy, I'm not going to let myself or anyone else tell me it's a pitiful waste of my life.

Getting my Kix - I

Bowl of Kix for bedtime snack. I haven't had Kix since I was a kid. They were new then. I bought them for my infant daughter. It's just one of many ways that I feed off of the life I created for her. I didn't mean to share so much of it, but hey, I get my Kix that way.

She's been sick this past week. We are over the throwing up, but not past the diarrhea. Parts of yesterday and today she was in all-out fussy mood. Arching her back but still wanting to be held. It's frustrating even when you suspect it has something to do with her not feeling good. Then there is the guilt later on when she passes a couple of giant BM's and you realize what was the culprit. The guilt teaches you to be gentle next time the situation is exactly the same. But if it's a little different, you'll probably be just as irritated by the seeming irrationality of it. At least, I will.

Stayed home from church today. It was a nice break. We were trying to avoid the bug that's going around.