Home is where it's at

I am finding that our days are most peaceful right now when we stay at home. We have a daily rhythm that I try to follow, but not having any scheduled activities gives me the freedom to address behaviors as they come up and take as much time as I need to deal with them (there seems to be a lot of this lately). I always try to get us outside for some outdoor playtime or a walk or bike ride, but I don't really consider those as "outings." We can often successfully do a quick errand (post office, grocery store, etc), but sometimes even those are challenging, most of which is getting them dressed and out of the house before I want to tear my hair out because they are taking what is, in my opinion, an inordinate amount of time to get ready.

I feel like my current biggest struggle is teaching them to "do what I say right away." I find myself needing to enforce this constantly. This is another reason I like being at home better - when we're not on a strict schedule there's more margin for working on this, whereas when we're trying to get somewhere (or back home) at a particular time, I find myself losing patience a lot faster. Does anyone else struggle with their kids listening and doing what they're told promptly? It's not just me, right?!

On another note, sweet Felix turns 4 tomorrow, and we've all been working hard at preparing for his birthday, as well as for the little party we're having for him tomorrow. Yesterday I introduced the activity of making paper lanterns as decorations and they LOVED it. They made a ton. They resumed this morning and things were going great...until they took all the lanterns down mid-morning while I was nursing Ezra in order to "take them upstairs and play with them." (Jude's idea, of course, but Felix followed suit and helped take them down). I was pretty angry and upset because 1) they had ripped some of the lanterns while taking them down and 2) I would now have to repair and rehang all of them, adding to my already long to-do list for tomorrow. However, after expressing my initial disappointment for these reasons, I saw an opportunity and explained to Jude that making something for someone and then taking it back for yourself (which is essentially what he was doing) is selfish and unkind. I suggested that next time, he should make new lanterns for himself to play with, instead of taking the ones he had already made for Felix.

Anyway, they were so excited today they could hardly contain themselves so it was hard to get anything done. It was also hard for me to maintain my patience with them as I felt they were "slowing me down" from accomplishing the things I need to do for Felix's birthday. So I just kept repeating my new mantra "It's supposed to be hard" and reminded myself how fortunate I am to be celebrating the birthday of my healthy, vibrant Felix tomorrow.