The days are long, but the years are short!

Tonight I needed this reminder....

The days are long, but the years are short! 

It has been one of those long days. Mondays are sooo busy for me with work, and just getting everything in order for the week. Today was especially long and tiring. Derrick was GROUCHY all day. Cranky Derrick is not fun, and he tends to be a bit of a tornado when he is ornery.  I put him down several times for a nap, and he would fall asleep for about five minutes, then wake back up.

I had a few personal things to take care of, with Lexi, and life, and then there is the everyday life stuff like cooking, cleaning, getting kids off to school, home from school, etc. I felt like I was a busy bee all day, making phone calls, running errands, putting out fires, and the list goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on.... (you get the point).

I truly felt like I was swamped all day, but the only thing I feel like I accomplished today was making dinner for my family, and frankly, that wouldn't have happened if it wasn't a pre-made freezer meal.

When 7:30-8 rolled around, I was soooo glad to put my kids to bed. BUT...like long days have a way of going, my kids were not very cooperative. They would not stop talking, they would not keep the lights off. When I went down to get them back in bed, I found a disaster zone (in what was previously a very clean room, at bedtime the room was spic and span). They had torn their beds apart, etc. Long story short, it got even worse. Ugh. Sometimes, I just feel like it will never get easier, my kids will never stop pushing the buttons, and doing the things they know better than doing. And of course, Brett is not home, so I felt like I was battling alone.

Being angry with my kids doesn't help. Being frustrated doesn't change anything. It is hard to learn, and harder to put into practice. I decided I better just apply some of that frustration to getting some work done, and try to make up for a day that felt like a waste of time. I sat down to read some articles I had bookmarked for some stuff I had to write, and I happened to come across a heart felt plea to parents to not wish away the years of childhood. It was an interesting article about how parenting does get easier, and kids do grow up, the messes eventually stop, the interruptions eventually stop, the inability to even use the bathroom without someone to knocking and needing something does eventually stop, it spoke to me. It included the phrase "The days are long, but the years are short." Today was certainly long. But I still can't believe Dillan is almost 8, that Derrick is no longer a baby, Alexis has little crushes, etc.

I am not trying to do a moral of the story post, honestly, I am still furious with my children's behavior tonight, and still trying to wrap my head around why I bothered getting out of bed today, but I am grateful for the tender mercies, and tiny reminders we get along the way that someday it won't feel like such a heavy load. I look forward to that day, and for now I am going to do my best to let the messes go, let the frustrations go, and just enjoy my children being children.