{"id":10160,"date":"2016-02-05T09:20:01","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T14:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=10160"},"modified":"2016-02-05T09:20:01","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T14:20:01","slug":"choosing-how-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2016\/02\/05\/choosing-how-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing How to Be"},"content":{"rendered":"

The flu<\/a>\u00a0overtook our house last week, no soul was spared.\u00a0 After days upon days of meeting my children’s constant needs, after nights of temperature checks, fighting taking medicine, frequent nursing sessions and ER visits, we’ve finally recovered.\u00a0 The baby had his last dose of Tamiflu and aside from a lingering cough, you wouldn’t know any of us were\u00a0even sick.<\/p>\n

Yet here I stand on the other side, feeling beat down and broken.<\/p>\n

But it’s not just the flu that did me in, it’s life.\u00a0 It’s two full weeks without hubby and our two weekends with him spent being sick \u00a0and miserable.\u00a0 It’s a sudden change in the schedule that we’ve been bumbling along with for months now.\u00a0 It’s looking at all the things I need to accomplish and knowing I will never have the time, energy and patience to achieve it all successfully.<\/p>\n

And I let it get to me. \u00a0I stomped around, grumped at my kids and yelled at my husband. \u00a0I felt helpless when all I really need is help and encouragement. \u00a0And then I gave in.<\/p>\n

I have a crazy life. \u00a0I have four kids, including a newborn. \u00a0I am wholly responsible for\u00a0homeschooling two of them. \u00a0My husband works long hours with an hour each way commute. \u00a0We still don’t have a lot of good friends nearby our new home.<\/p>\n

But we\u00a0chose<\/em> this life<\/a>, I am certainly not a victim of circumstances. \u00a0And I can wallow away in the stress of it all or I can find the joy in it. \u00a0I get to\u00a0choose<\/em> how I experience my life.\"choose<\/p>\n

So after a week of feeling in over my head, of letting the exhaustion get the best of me, I chose a different path. \u00a0Not to “be the better person” but to be my best me<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Instead of fighting Doodle at bedtime<\/a>, I just do what needs to be done. \u00a0Instead of getting swallowed up by the routine and fighting with my kids about it, we just get it done. \u00a0If he won’t let me brush his teeth nicely (“meeee<\/em> do it!”) then I’ll hold him down and just do it (it only took one time).<\/p>\n

Instead of yelling at Honeybun to just do her schoolwork and fix her attitude, I’ll sit down beside her and answer her questions as she goes rather than waiting for her to come to me for help.<\/p>\n

Instead of begging Sugarplum to clean up after herself, I’ll start and expect her to join me, giving specific direction rather than\u00a0generalized pleading.<\/p>\n

Instead of getting frustrated when Pipsqueak refuses to go to sleep even though I’m exhausted, I’ll embrace the moments where he just wants to lounge in my arms and stare deep into my eyes for he’ll only be tiny a short while longer.<\/p>\n

I’m by no means perfect, never will be and honestly don’t aspire to be, but I do know that I can be better. \u00a0I can make all of our lives easier and less stressful by making small little changes.<\/p>\n

By focusing on simply getting things done rather than wallowing away in the heaps of responsibility, we’re all coming to a happier, more relaxed place. \u00a0(Though I’m still exhausted and don’t feel like I’ve been given the opportunity to overcome the damage the flu did to my body yet!)\"happier<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The flu\u00a0overtook our house last week, no soul was spared.\u00a0 After days upon days of meeting my children’s constant needs, after nights of temperature checks, fighting taking medicine, frequent nursing sessions and ER visits, we’ve finally recovered.\u00a0 The baby had his last dose of Tamiflu and aside from a lingering cough, you wouldn’t know any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,9,5],"tags":[445,420,73],"class_list":["post-10160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-mommys-life","category-family-life","category-mommy-time","tag-choices","tag-mommy-life","tag-stress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10160"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10164,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10160\/revisions\/10164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}