Lay it down

I lay it all down tonight. My "rights" to privacy in the bathroom, or silence when i am on a call, or a clean house or painted toes. They are all being put down tonight. My rights are representations of the old me. The who i was but not who i am or who i am called to be. I have been looking back longingly at that old me of singleness and "freedom", and as God has been trying to free me of that selfish person i have been fighting Him every step of the way. But tonight i will not fight. The greater blessings of little feet and little arms of love running to me and tackling me far outweigh a manicure. The sweet voices saying "thank you mommy for taking to mcdonalds" or my 4 yr old telling me "you're a good mommy" are so much better than any so called freedom of before. I am astonished by my selfishness and so so thankful for a loving Father who patiently continues to work on my heart and love me even in my ungrateful states. The joys and tears of marriage and motherhood are a great adventure and where i am called to be now. Just as the joys and tears of singleness were the adventurers i was called to in the past. I will live in this present adventure whether it is a glorious hug from my children or dirty diapers being dragged across carpet. This is beautiful and i am thankful to be God's beautiful mess.

"S**t or Get Off the Pot" - real life potty training

Never has that phrase been more real than while potty training. I have three toddlers all in different stages of potty training right now but all of them seem to need to do their business at bed time. While i am thankful for more flushable business trips, i have found that at my moments of least endurance and patience is their favorite time to go. the girls just like to take their sweet time and read or talk or sing while my son just likes to get it over with. Of course he is also four and a month ago swore that he would not use the potty at all till he was 5 and he did not want to go to school or VBS or rec camp (all failed incentives to get him out of diapers). Now he is an underwear using preschooler who got his first backpack today. And yes i have lived for two years in total parent embarrassment changing the diaper of a toddler who is at least one year bigger than his age. But as i heard from focus on the family  and daily reminded myself, "i have never met a high schooler still in diapers". My three yr old is going potty about 50% of the time and my two yr old likes to pretend she needs to go. She also likes to try to change her own dirty diapers no matter what location she is in. So fun when your child is stripping down in the middle of the grocery store. But one day they will all get there. Maybe like magic like with my son. He just woke up one day and decided that was enough. There is potty victory one day down the road. They will all one day "s**t and get off the pot"