The Harding Family: FHE FAIL!!!

The last couple of weeks the kids have been pushing the limits and seem to getting in trouble more than just the usual things. We have had 4 different days where the kids have gotten into the craft/ storage closets and gotten out all of the coloring supplies and colored ALL OVER EVERYTHING DOWNSTAIRS!!! As anyone with small children knows when you mess with "the routine" it throws EVERYONE/EVERYTHING TOTALLY OFF!! I am like a schedule queen these days so poor little Tui expects things a certain way everyday. He wants to eat at certain times, sit and play with me RIGHT AFTER lunch, be held when the kids are being loud and be rocked to sleep PRECISELY AT THE SAME TIME EVERYDAY.... Which makes it hard to have my eyes on EVERY child at EVERY MOMENT OF THE DAY.. and right now Briyler and Raven (one of the kids I watch during the day) seem to just feed off of each other and with a daily routine like mine it is soo hard to try to control 2 naughty 3 yr olds :)

Sooo Needless to say a FHE lesson on consequences was IN ORDER :) BUT today the lesson DID NOT GO AS PLANNED... Ryker was in a little bit of a mood tonight and I was trying to get him involved and excited about out lesson. I kept asking him questions, and trying to get him to participate but it just wasn't working. I finally asked if he knew "what I did while he was at school all day?", I was hoping to show him that I spent a lot of time preparing our lesson and that it hurts my feelings when they come to FHE with a bad attitude and don't want to participate in the fun things that I planned... Instead of getting that across we ended up getting into a "heated discussion" Yep I say "discussion" because I'm trying to justify my actions;). His response to my question was "Ya I know what you do all day, NOTHING!!".. WHAAA Did he really just say "I do NOTHING ALL DAY" (those are the exact words that went racing through my mind and without even thinking twice I started to spout off EXACTLY what I do EVERYDAY while he's at school)...

7:00 am- Dad gets up with the older kids and feeds them breakfast, YEP I"M LUCKY!!
7:45- be up and ready to take on the day:)
7:55- Mason and Raven get dropped off
8:00- Make Tui breakfast, feed him, clean up after breakfast and change diaper
8:20- Make Rykers lunch and do a few of his reading books
8:35-Have Ryker and Mason put on their shoes, coats and backpacks
8:40- send the boys out to wait for carpool, or drive carpool on my weeks
9:00- get back from carpool and get Kynlie out of bed, change kynlie and dugi's diapers
9:15- feed Kynlie breakfast and clean up after her (she is an unusually messy eater)
9:15 - If I haven't squeezed it in before now, feed Tui his morning bottle and rock him to sleep for his am nap
10:00-10:15- get Tui up
10:15-11:00- Play time with all the kids
11:00- make Tui's lunch, feed him and clean him up
11:25- make other 4 kids lunches, then clean them up
12:00- Rock Tui to sleep for his afternoon nap
12:30-Take kynlie and dugi down for naps
1:00- start a movie for Bri, Raven and Mason and HOPE LIKE CRAZY that they fall asleep
2:00-clean up around the house and start or premake dinner
3:30-Tui's up from nap
3:45- 3:55- RYker gets home from the bus or I pick up carpool
4:00- Get kynlie and dugi up from naps
4:15- either read for 20 min or get 1 math worksheet in for Rykers homework
4:30- put dinner in the oven or start stove top so it will be done when dad gets home
5:00- 5:30- THE BEST PART OF THE DAY, DAD IS HOME!!
6:00- finish up dinner, clean up after the kids
6:30-7:30- Mom: either leaves for the gym or goes downstairs to do my nightly workout routine
Dad: plays with kids downstairs or watches a movie
7:30- Change all 3 diapers, brush teeth, read scriptures, and say prayers
7:45- Dugi and Kyn go to sleep
7:45-8:30- Briyler and Ryker go upstairs and get 45 min of electronic time with dad :) playing Ipad, Leapsters, or phones..
8:30- bed time for Ryker and Bri
8:30- 10:00- I either get home from the gym and pretty much head to bed or I help put the boys down and then Kaj and I watch a few tv episodes before heading off to bed...

Lucky for me (and them) Dad jumped in (when I got to about 5pm) and tried to finish up the lesson, but by then it was pretty much already a BUST. Dad did everything he could to try to salvage some sort of lesson and end on a positive note, but by the end of the night everyone was happy for this family night to be over.... I went downstairs to run on the treadmill and the kids went down for their nightly playtime. After I cooled off I brought the kids up for their dessert. The younger kids were just to tired so we decided to put them to bed.. (they had completely forgotten about treats so they didn't miss anything:) and the older boys and dad enjoyed some yummy chocolate fondue and strawberries..

silly Boys

They love to make faces.

As I'm sitting here tonight writing about our total FHE FAIL, I just keep thinking to myself.. "it's ok, everyone has days like this", "DONT GIVE UP, DONT GIVE UP", "Remember to hug them, kiss them and tell them that you love them when they wake up", and yep the dreaded thought that always seem to come up with things go wrong "THIS DOES NOT MAKE YOU A BAD MOM"... We all have off day's so I know that its not the end of the world but I just wish that I could have kept my cool tonight.. Even though my daily routine is HARD and exhausting and sometimes it seems SOO OVERWHELMING, I don't EVER want my children to feel like they are a burden or like I don't want to do those things for them. I knew having children would be a lot of work and I AM more than happy to do all of these things/and MORE for them when they need it.. The last thing I want them to hear is me "complaining" about all the things I have to do on a daily basis for them. (I didn't mean for it to come across that way but I can only imagine in the mind of a 6 yr old, when your mother is yelling every SINGLE detail of what she does during the day at you, the thoughts that are going through your mind aren't that of: Look at all that my mom does for me/us and it's purely out of LOVE)...

I wanted so badly to teach the kids about consequences, good and bad, and to help them understand that when we make bad choices- bad consequences follow, and when we make GOOD CHOICES- GOOD CONSEQUENCES FOLLOW!! I guess that lesson will have to wait for another night, the real lesson that was learned was for me.. It is ENJOY your daily routine and EVERYTHING IT ENTAILS, right now, because it wont be this way forever. Don't ever make your kids feel guilty for what you do for them, love them WHOLE HEARTEDLY and not expecting anything in return because that's what a mothers love should be: Unconditional, FREE, Gentle, Never Ending, Given not earned, the LIGHT of her children's LIFE.. I hope that my sweet little kiddo's know how much I love them.. In spite of my imperfections/impatience, I hope that they know that they mean the WORLD TO ME! Life wouldn't be the same without each and every one of them and I am soo grateful that Heavenly Father has entrusted me with such amazing little spirits. Even though I am not " super knew" to motherhood I still feel like I am. I feel like I am learning as I go and I don't always know the best way to handle situations, I feel like I get upset at things and then look back at them and realise how "unimportant" they really are and instead of fighting with my 6 yr old about everything I do in a day I should be laughing, teaching, and making fun family memories with him. I want our children to look back at there childhood and have more good memories than bad, more positive influence than negative, more happiness than sadness.. I want them to feel like our home is "their safe place" amidst such a crazy world. They need to have somewhere they can go to get away (I'm hoping that is OUR HOME) and someone that they know LOVES unconditionally and will help them through anything (and that is ME, and Dad of course)... Lesson Learned (for me!) :O)

Love these crazy little kiddies!!