Abundant Life

be a yes mom

Before any of you should begin to compare yourself to me and think that I am some wonderful mother for saying yes to my kids this week, I will confess that it was out of sheer desperation. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, God has quite a sense of humor. Of our 8 kids, to have two boys on the end was just a deal of fate that baffles me to this day. Yes my nearly 3 and nearly 6 year-old young sons have driven me to extremes.

I have had it with their pranks, their confounding ability to cut, poke, and otherwise destroy anything – anything - in our home in the few seconds that you have turned your eye. It hasn’t helped that my husband has been out of town for the past two weeks. They are his special friends and he spends most evenings wearing them out one way or another for me.

When I collapse into bed at night, my thoughts and prayers have been about these boys! Surely I have been at this motherhood thing long enough to have some strategy, some trick of the trade to help them be, well, less destructive?

Because the goal of this blog is to encourage you, I will share my plan of attack – which was, by the way, very successful!

First, we drove to the local discount store and invested in my mental health by buying the biggest plastic wading pool that would fit in the back of my goldfish encrusted Excursion.

Notice in the nearly 3 year old’s hand the math manipulatives fashioned into a sword!

Next, we loaded that cart with all of the water toys that we could imagine – squirt guns, rubber duckies and other scoops and cups…one single lane Slip and Slide, one shade tent, one tube of 30SPF waterproof sunscreen, a family-sized box of goldfish and a case of juice boxes.

We also added a gallon of bubble mix and a canister of bubble wands, finger paints and two identical superman capes, because there needs to be room in this house for two supermen!

be a yes mom