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Recently I had a motherhood epiphany, and here's how it happened:
Last month I took an e-course, Teach Your Life to Be Extraordinary, with my friend and incredible teacher, Lisa Grace Byrne. (As a side note, I've taken two of Lisa's courses thus far and found both to be excellent. I highly recommend her inspired work!)
As one of the activities, Lisa had us fill out a timesheet of sorts--listing all of the tasks, from large to small, that we do in a typical day or week.
After we had our list more or less complete, we were to go down it and mark beside each task a symbol: a star if we feel this activity is part of our mission/purpose, a smile if it's a task we enjoy, or a frown if it's a task that drains us.
I reached the line where I had written "making dinner for the family." Usually I dread this late-afternoon duty and approach it as one of the "must-have's" for the family--doing my best to have a good attitude.
But when I slowed down to consider how much I actually like this activity, I ended up writing in the margin "I enjoy it if I have enough time and don't feel rushed and exhausted."
I didn't need to change what I was doing--just how I was doing it.
Since then I've started prepping dinner right after lunch--putting on a video for the kids at the dining table where I can watch while I work (I like this series as much as they do so I don't want to miss out!)
Then while we're all thus happily occupied I chop, saute, and get a head start--so that when 5:30pm rolls around, I'm already in the home stretch.
I found this to be the case with many items on my list. I realized that it wasn't the tasks themselves I disliked, but my approach to them.
When I looked at them with a more creative eye, I came up with an alternative to try that fits my personality, energy levels, and family better.
Yay for small wins--they help fill a house (and our souls) with a bit more peace and joy, and isn't that what we're after in our home atmospheres?
"There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one."
~ Jill Churchill
