Did anyone else watch Parenthood last week?

If not, Christina, mom of three and five weeks post-partum if feeling totally alone and unappreciated as she juggles three kids, a house in the sleep-deprived newborn state.  She decides to plan a family night—where the whole family can get away and reconnect, but as they drive to go mini-golfing, the kids start complaining, her husband isn’t being supportive and she loses it.  She ends up telling her husband to pull over, kicks her older kids and husband out of the car and drives off, leaving them to walk home.

Crazy, right?

Ummm, not so much.

In fact, as I watched the scene, the first thing that popped into my mind was “Oh my, there have been like six times in the last two weeks that I’ve wanted to do exactly that.”

Okay, so I probably wouldn’t leave my kids on the side of the street to fend for themselves (they aren’t as old as Christina’s kids on Parenthood), but sometimes I feel like everyone is wanting, wanting, wanting things from me… I need a cup of water, the baby’s hungry, I need more Nutella on my toast because I licked it all off, find my sparkle silver boots because the black boots won’t do, Clean my Yoda underdrawers because the Yoda underdrawers are the ONLY ones that I will wear to school,  do the dishes, wash the laundry, get the baby up from his nap, drive me to Football, get me a snack, turn on the TV because I’m scared of the beeping noise it makes when I turn it on… and the list goes on.

Aside from leaving our kids on the side of the road, how can we deal?  How can we be joyful as mothers without losing our cool and doing something crazy?  I don’t know the answer… and I’m starting to discover that as a blogger, I often have more questions than answers… but at the very least, I’d love to hear from you and get a conversation started around joyful motherhood.

So, your turn:  How do you stay joyful in motherhood when your days and your tasks are anything but joyful?

P.S.  Last chance to win a $25 gift card to The Little Card Company!  Click here to enter!

Part of me doesn’t want my baby to start sleeping through the night.

Of course, there’s the part of me who’s sick of dragging myself out of bed every morning at 2 am (and 4 am…. And 5 am…) to feed the baby who simply won’t take milk from anyone but Mommy… but there’s part of me that savors the sound of crying on the monitor.

Now, before you dismiss me as crazy, let me explain.

You see, Will is my last baby.  Definitely my last.  Technically, Kate, my second was my last for three years, but this time I mean it.  I am not having any more.  And, because of that, these baby days are passing all too fast.  With my other two, I prayed that they’d start sleeping through the night… and cheered them on as they learned to sit, crawl and walk.  But with Will, I’m doing the opposite.  I’m praying he stays my baby just a little while longer.

So, for now, I’m savoring those middle-of-the-night wake-up calls.

I’m stroking his little head, sleepily rubbing his face and praying for this sweet and unexpected blessing that God has bestowed on me.

Because all too soon, my midnight wake-up calls will be over.

Question for you: What part of your life right now are you savoring?

Overhead from upstairs:  “Joey, you can choose to play Legos or Star Wars guys, but if you whine, I’m going to choose for you.”

Apparently all that Loving Your Kids on Purpose and Love and Logic stuff I’ve been doing has finally sunk in, because  my daughter Kate has started love-and-logic-ing her friends, her siblings, her cousins and even me.

“Uh-oh Mommy,” she told me this morning.  “Looks like you are choosing to have a sad heart.  You probably should go find someplace quiet until your heart feels happy again.”  Ugh.  Serves me right for getting a teensy bit cranky when the cinnamon toast got burned after the baby decided he needed to eat at the very instant that I was finishing up breakfast for the older kids.

And then as we rushed out the door to take my son to school, she stopped me at the door and asked me if I’d gone potty.  Then calmly told me that it was my choice if I went potty or not, but if I had to go during the (five minute) car ride to school, we weren’t going to be able to stop.  My choice, indeed.

Anyway, aside from being slightly annoyed that my four-year-old has started mothering me, this also got me thinking about my approach to disciplining my kids.   Because the truth is that as my older two kids have eased out of the terrible twos and the trying threes, discipline has gotten harder, instead of easier like I expected.

I no longer worry about them putting things in their mouth or touching the oven or climbing onto the table, but now I have to worry about their character.  And how the lessons I teach them now will impact them later in life.   And that’s scary.

Anyway, while I’m in no way an expert, I’ve come to the conclusion that discipline is never a one-approach-fits-all thing—so you probably won’t find me touting a certain book or idea or author.  Instead, I’m praying that God will show me how to reach my kids for him with every word I say, situation I face and decision I make.  Because at this point in my life, every word, situation and decision really seems  to matter.

Question for you: What’s your approach to discipine?  How does it work?