Long Days, Short Years...

There are nights when I can get so discouraged. It seems I am constantly doing something, but nothing ever looks "done" in my house! Awhile back I was feeding the baby and trying to figure out how I could do better job at managing my home. I thought of an excerpt from a book I had only glanced at briefly. It said something to the effect of that her day and her husband's day would look totally different as far as productivity goes. I thought about all the things I DID do in my days and begin to write them down. The list got longer and longer. It was mostly things I could cross of the list and be done with until next time.

These are the things I need to be thinking about though.

Today, did I...

Talk to my children about Jesus and our need for Him and His great love for us?

Hold my husband tight as he left for work and greet him sweetly as he walked in the door?

Rock and sing to the baby?

Let a child "help" in the kitchen?

Discipline as needed and referee sibling squabbles and AGAIN point them to our need for a Saviour, even as I see the need for myself?

Encourage and build them up even when my my Matt built a "lightening catcher to produce electricity" in our front yard?

Show with my actions and words that serving my God and my family were pleasant and desirable to me?

Let my kids have lots of playtime and get outside and get really dirty?

Drop everything and rush to the doctor when a little one is sick and then let them pick out their favorite ice cream when we pick up their prescription?

Read to the kids lots of books?

Really listen to my sweet hubby when he calls from work just to talk?

Not get frustrated and yell when explaining a school concept for the 39th time?

Make my baby giggle as I sing silly songs when I change his diaper?

Teach my children that working hard for something is always worth it?

Play Littlest Pet Shop with my little girl even if it meant something else was not getting done?

Really stop and laugh at all the wonderful jokes and stories my hubby comes up with?

Rub baby lotion on the baby and rock and smell his little head and try to imprint that sweet baby smell in my mind forever?


There are many other things I have to do in my day. I have to pay bills, make school plans, buy groceries, and so on and on and on and on. And there are a lot of things I want to do in my day, talk with my friends, learn to make bread, learn to really sew, and so on and on and on.

But, at the end of the day if I can glance at this list and say I did manage a few of these, then my day will be productive. It may not seem like it today, but when the children are out on their own and following our God in their own lives, it will have been a very productive life indeed.