great moments (not days)

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There are a lot of things on my plate right now that are making life hard. I won't lie. My three-year-old is the mayor of tantrum city. My two-year-old is showing zero signs of being ready to permanently move into his big boy bed or be potty trained, though both seemed within reach months ago. My newborn is doing so well, especially for only being 5 weeks old (sleeping five hours at night, self soothing, etc) but she's still a newborn, so there's still everything that comes along with that. Add that to having no family close by and a husband who works 60+ hours a week. It's busy, it's tiring, it's life.

But if I let myself dwell on the hard, my heart doesn't benefit at all. The other night Brad and I sat together and he challenged me to see the blessings in my day to day because it's all to easy to point out the hard stuff. At the time I was feeling particularly hardhearted towards my oldest girl. She hadn't given me the easiest time that day to say the least. He gently reminded me of some of our great moments together that day. And in this stage of life, you've got to count moments! Great days (like, a full 12+ hours of great/easy/fun) are hard to come by, but we're not lacking in great moments.

Lily helping me with the dishes.

Oli asking Lily for forgiveness after hurting her and them hugging it out.

Lily curling up for a snuggle while we watched Blues Clues.

Chloé smiling for the first time at Brad and I.

Chloé being the object of Oli's affection and his face lighting up when he sees her.

Oli reminding me during nightly prayer to ask Jesus to heal our 3 friends who have cancer.

Lily telling me that God will protect her when she has bad dreams.

Chloé sleeping from 1am-7am. It only happened once but it was fabulous.

These are all really great moments in time, during a hard season. And I am working on appreciating them instead of dwelling on the hard. It's crazy with little ones, isn't it? The love you feel so often seems one-sided. You can't stop loving them, even when they're SO disobedient and SO disrespectful and SO acting their age :)

This week both toddlers were asleep, and Chloé fell asleep on my lap. Since it was in line with her schedule, I just let her sleep there. I nodded off for a minute but mostly just watched her and soaked up a great moment. The late afternoon sun was coming in through our patio doors. Brad has quiet music in the background as he worked. My tea was still warm (miracle of miracles!). I knew in a few minutes the older two would wake and dinner prep would start and the 5-7pm time slot that is so very hard was creeping closer. But it was a great moment.