Stress Free Holiday....

Hahahahaha.... I'm still laughing. But not really. I purposed at the beginning of the season to remain as stress free as possible, and there was less stress. I planned to do things like

• take a frozen lasagna to Christmas supper at Nana's house
• skip blogging every two days
• shop online more than I would like
• not change my sheets every week (gasp!)
• make an easy Christmas Day lunch 
• let the dust bunnies live a little longer
• I even left a stripe of red velvet cake scraped across the floor for so long that it actually wore off! (Now that's just gross! I have to mop my house.)

But there were a few glitches. You know those well laid plans?

A couple of weeks ago, when I picked up Mary from a friend's house, they were all still in their pajamas sitting at the kitchen table playing a game. And, shocking as it was, it was around eleven o'clock in the morning. The way I keep my schedule so tight it is very rare for me to still be in my pajamas that late in the day unless it was a cleaning day and then I would probably still have changed to different clothes. At that point, I made it a goal to have at least one morning that I stayed in my pajamas and played with the girls, just played, no other agenda.

The morning I chose was a day when Mary and Lydia had friends over, I planned to make a pancake Christmas trees and paint nails, but most of all, stay in my pajamas and not be stressed. As it turned out, Abigail decided that was the day that she would give meaning to the "terrible twos." The pancake tower of Christmas trees looked more like deformed snow flakes. Everyone got their nails painted but I broke a brand new bottle of sparkly glitter nail polish in my hands and ruined mine. Abigail ended up getting several spankings and I was reduced to a bumbling mess and gave meaning to the "mean mother."

In God's sovereignty, He placed very helpful and understanding older girls in my home. Hannah dropped off the friends, took Mary and Lydia shopping and I put Abigail down for a long nap. Then I hid in my room with a cup of coffee to unwind. The afternoon turned out much better and I remembered yet again, that my life isn't going to be calm and quiet.

There is always noise and activity, but I can worship God, enjoy my family and serve others in the midst of it all. Some of my well laid plans fell through and I got stressed a few times, but my attitude toward it all was better.

The dust bunnies are still growing but they seem to be a little friendlier these days.