For Lent I gave up yelling. "Really?," you might be asking, "shouldn't you not be yelling, anyway?"
"YES!" (not that I yelled that response)
But somehow, yelling had crept into our lives. YUCK! I know how it happened. It's called trying to discipline a two-year old while nursing a new baby. It's trying to manage ten different crazy behaviors in the fifteen minutes (or more) that it takes to nurse a new-born baby. It's from not being able to follow through immediately on my commands.
For example, in the ten minutes that I spent nursing Dulce prior to writing this blog post, Pia pushed a chair up to the counter, climbed up and got her bubbles. She then unlocked the front door and went outside to blow some bubbles. So far, not too much trouble, I could see her. She then spilled the remaining bubbles all over the kitchen. Did I mention they are, no, WERE cherry scented bubbles? Awesome. Then she raided the refrigerator for cheese and grapes. She narrated this to me as it happened but I was stuck on the couch. "Close the refrigerator," I instructed. "Wait for a minute, I need to wash the grapes for you." Obedience? Nope. When I got up to help her, I found the previously mentioned spilled bubbles and a wide open refrigerator. She had already eaten the grapes. UGH! How frustrating. So I sent her to time-out in her room. Several minutes later I informed her she could come out of time out. She called back to me that she needed my help since she was in, guess where-the crib. A comedy of errors. And a pretty regular occurrence with differing crazy behaviors.
By the time Lent arrived, I was just so frustrated with her....and she is a pretty good little girl! I had decided to give up sweets again. But after several days of failure, I realized that I had just decided. Not prayed. I had said, "I'm doing this God, bless it!" instead of "Lord, what are you calling me to? What area of my life do you want to bless? How can I be closer to you?"
So our house is more peaceful now. No more yelling. More patience and follow through on discipline. It helps that Dulce is a little bit bigger and thriving so if I need to stop nursing her to give a time out, I don't feel so bad about it. I also give more quality time to my little ones-that seems to cut down on the crazy behaviour. An easy Lent? Not really. But the right Lent. God's will. Wonderful.
