Severe Case of Mommy Brain

As many of you Mommies out there can attest, we most definitely lose our brains from the moment our kids enter our lives. It's not even a gradual thing. Just like that, it's gone. My sister-in-law, Elisabeth, sent me an interesting email recently about one mother and the crazy names she has accidentally called her children and the silly things she has told them to do. Well, I could totally relate to this.

Take today, for instance. After a long night with a sick and grumpy daughter, I'm trying my best to function. Cotter decides to open the door to the laundry room, which houses our cat's litter box and thus stays closed for Kaitlyn's sake. (Thankfully, the cat has learned how to "ask" us to open the door.) So, I call out to Cotter, "Kaitlyn, close the door before Cotter digs in the litter!" [Cotter laughs at my misplaced words.] Giggling myself, I try again with all seriousness, "Cotter, close the door before Kaitlyn digs in the laundry!" [Cotter laughs again, probably thinking I'm joking.] Then, Cotter is quite impressed when I finally, slowly, come out with the correct words on my third try.

Then there was lunch time. Cotter asks for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So, having fixed at least 400 of these sandwiches over the past year, I can pretty much do that in automatic-pilot mode. So, I guess the sandwich was made, although I don't really have any recollection of having completed the task. About 10 minutes later, Cotter says, "I'm still hungry." I look at his blank plate and start to ask him what else he would like. But then, glancing onto the countertop, I notice a peanut butter and jelly sandwich which was made, neatly cut in half, and placed into a sandwich baggy, all ready for Cotter's lunch...uh...tomorrow?

After a while, you just have to laugh at yourself.

Jesus Muscles

We've started something new in our house--exercising our "Jesus Muscles." The kids get rewarded for intentionally obeying God's Word by doing such things as: obeying immediately, resisting temptation, not hurting or yelling back when somebody hurts or offends them, listening to the Holy Spirit (or, as they call it, "the little voice inside of me"), etc. When they do one of these things, they get to pick a slip of paper from the Jesus Muscles envelope and follow its instructions. These aren't material things, but more like silly little privileges.

Here are some examples of some of the things they've been able to do:

• Wear Daddy's pajamas to bed
• Eat dessert before dinner
• Get to choose where we walk (and control the garage door clicker) when we take a walk
• Get to eat off of breakable adult dishes all day long
• Get to plan a meal and help cook it
• Get a free pass to not have to clean their room that night before bed
• Get to call two family members or friends to tell them all about how they resisted temptation, listened or obeyed
• Get to stay up an extra 10 minutes with Mommy and Daddy

The kids absolutely love this! They can't wait to see what silly thing they'll get to do next. And, I've noticed a remarkable improvement in the boys ability to get along together now that they are working hard to not fight back or escalate arguments. Aidan especially is learning how to listen to the Holy Spirit better. For instance, the other day right after Cotter got a spanking for something, Aidan came to me and said, "I wanted to laugh when Cotter was getting a spanking, but the little voice inside of me told me that I shouldn't be happy about that, so I didn't. " I thought that was great!

We'll see how long until the novelty of the Jesus Muscles (or my creativity in coming up with silly privileges) wears off. If you have any ideas, let me know!