Mantras for a Year

For today, just a quick something something.

I've heard several blogging mothers who have chosen a word or slogan for the year.  I like the idea, but you know me, I'm just too wordy to choose just one word. :)

So, I've been thinking about a couple of different things I would like to focus on this year.

The first one I've been thinking about for over a month now.  A mantra I'd like to remember when I'm in the thick of motherhood, in the trenches.  It is:

Compassion before convenience.

And that includes myself!  Because sometimes I need to have empathy for my own self, too.  It is so easy for me to be empathetic toward other mothers.  Maybe they're in their exercise clothes (or even their pj's!) at noon or even maybe at 5pm, or maybe they are a bit frazzled, or maybe their child is throwing a big giant fit somewhere very public and inconvenient (happened to me just the other day!).  From the outside, it's easy for me to be easy on them: I can see that they have a number of small children, or they are still  nursing, or they haven't had any sleep the night before, or they spend a lot of time with their children or helping in their communities, or I know they haven't had a break in a while.  When I see a messy house on one of these women, it is so easy for me to see the big picture-- to pass off all the little nit-picky things that might not be perfect and see all the great and wonderful things this woman is doing.  But when that woman is me, I think-- why can't I keep it together?  Neglecting to see the big picture, which is...turn the mirror around, girl.

I got to practice this little saying last night, with my sweet little six year-old, who was having a hard day.  I can't remember the last time I just held her on my lap, just like I used to snuggle her when she was a baby.  So she sat on my lap and had a good cry, and I smoothed her hair and wiped little tears off her little freckled cheeks and we talked it all out.  And the clocked ticked toward bedtime and then tiptoed past, as if it too were traversing a long, quiet corridor.  But it wasn't quiet.  I had little ones climbing all over me and some whining for a drink and another wanting help with his spelling words.  One more wanted to know why I wasn't spending extra time with her. So everyone got to bed late that night. But it was okay.  Before I left her room for a final tucking in, she reached up and slipped something over my neck.  It was a little stretchy necklace with pied beads in all shapes and colors and sizes.  And soon I noticed that it was glowing, due to a number of glow-in-the-dark beads.  It fit just perfectly on top of the new more fashionable one my thoughtful sister just sent.  She sniffed and wiped her nose on her shirt ( :) ) , and took in a deep breath and told me that she had made it with her friends the other day, but she wanted to give it to me tonight.  I could tell it was a token of her little friendship, and I felt thankful.  And I wouldn't trade that too-late bedtime (or those ornery kids today) and the long lost personal time for the time we had to talk and work things out and learn together in the dark last night.

I have another one, I'll tell you another day.  I'm working on something, you'll see soon.

Love to all.