Habits and Routines

It wasn´t until our two recent trips, one to my BIL´s and the other to my "other home" in Madrid, NY that I realized how out of sorts we really are when it comes to habits and routines.  As the end of my pregnancy for Giselle neared, I began to let go of a little thing here and a little thing there in an attempt to survive the season.  It´s funny how in the same way you do things often enough they become habits, when you stop doing things often enough that becomes a habit as well.

Take chores, for example.  If you ask my children what their "Morning Fives" are, they would probably have absolutely no idea.  More often than not, lately I have to send children back upstairs to brush their teeth long after they´ve settled into watching "some" TV in the living room.  It is miraculous when we manage to put them to bed at night after a successful picking up of the living room.  Their bedroom... well, with mattresses that hosted my parents on the floor and an excess of suitcases, blankets, toys and clothes trying to find their space around their bedroom, it is pretty fair to say we have stopped picking it up altogether!  There are piles of stuff just about everywhere, but I came to a point where I had to chose whether to achieve an impeccable house after yelling at everyone to direct them to have stuff done, or just "be"... Snuggles rated higher on my list than cleaning drills.

Our slacking has met us everywhere... the dinner table, where we became eager to dismiss them to play or watch something just so that we could connect for a few minutes after I had spent the afternoon away and he had to get ready to leave for work.   Then the struggles to make them eat everything on their place have also slipped through the cracks as we just wanted to have a meal without having to argue, discipline, correct and have crying fits repeating the dislike for a certain food.  It reached the school routine that never really happened full blown. Somehow to an overly emotional 9 month pregnant woman keeping up with these things seemed unfathomable.  

Now we have to start from scratch, with a newborn and while we're still transitioning.  Now, I know that the homes we visited during these trips and that brought the awareness of our slacking to my attention afresh, are full of nothing but love and grace for us.  Never did we feel judged or pressured by them, I want to make that very clear.  Their orderly life just made my messy one stand out to me if to no one else.  And I have to balance the need and awareness with the grace for the season.  After all, we are still transitioning, and we will still be until we find a place we can make our home and unpack there the life we're packing up here.  That could take four? five weeks? more?  So, one day at a time!