Having a Happy Home

I'm not going to lie. Staying home is not something I enjoy doing too much of. I don't like weeks where nothing is going on, and I hate weekends even more that are void of any activity. Call it pregnancy hormones, or maybe it's just the way I am, but I am definitely someone who likes to be busy. One of the reasons I don't like winter is that being on the go is a lot more difficult. Especially with two little ones!

Anyways, I had always heard things like, "You should make your home an exciting place to be," and "One of the best things you can do for kids is staying home more often." I thought these were nice ideas, but I'm not sure I believed them. That is until this week. This week has been crazy busy. Actually, every week since the middle of November has been pretty busy, but this past week has been filled with Moms group, Christmas shopping, doctors appointments for the kids and myself, Church, Bible Studies, and errands. Things were starting to wear on me, but I didn't realize how much things were getting to my kids until Thursday morning when I was bustling them out the door to make yet another doctor appointment. On our way out to the van, my two year old started crying. I asked him what was wrong a little distractedly, and buckled him into his car seat.

The crying continued for a block or two, when finally he says in his little two year old voice, "Mommy, want to stay home with you! Don't want to go bye bye!" How that pierced me! At the stop light, I turned around and told him we did have to go see the doctor that day, but I promised we would stay home and play this weekend. I'm not sure how much he understood,but he did eventually stop crying. And since Thursday afternoon, we have been at home. And when we have left for Church or errands, it's been the four (five?) of us together. So the past few days have been spent coloring, playing with play doh, decorating Christmas cookies, reading stories, wrestling(that's more Erik and the kids, my belly gets in the way), and having family dinners. It might not seem like anything too exciting, but to our kids it's much better this way.