Last night I was feeling excited and anxious about trying to incorporate the Mother's Rule into my own life, a more disciplined schedule that would ensure that my time maintained a healthy balance of my top priorities and responsibilities in a way that would glorify and honor God--excited, because I had hope that my life could improve with this and the fruits that would come of it, and anxious, because of fear that I could not possibly turn the unpredictable feedings and sleepings of my infant and the constantly changing schedule of my husband into some sort of routine.
I unloaded all of my feelings about this book on my husband last night, afraid that he would discourage me from trying it, not because he wouldn't think it was good, but because I recently convinced him that we should take a temporary fast from eating out to save money and grow in self-control, that we should always do dishes and clean up immediately as part of the job, and that we should put more effort into eating more wholesome foods, all within a matter of a couple of weeks. Could I really throw something else at him when we were already putting effort into so many areas? It is interesting because I have often learned and seen that sometimes people should work on one habit at a time and grow in that one area, but in this book, she changed so much so quickly. She said that it went so well on DAY ONE. I know that she must have spent a lot of time in improving the schedule and growing in faithfulness and diligence to it, but sometimes it does seem that jumping into more ordered living (not that it will be perfect right away) takes a leap of action that can't always happen gradually. Or maybe that is just how it works for some people. If I wake up early enough to pray and eat breakfast before my daughter is up, but the rest of my day just sort of happens, I still arrive at 11 o'clock discouraged because it doesn't feel that different.
So I told my husband everything and I found him answering my objections and encouraging me to do what I can to imitate this woman in my own way. He even said that he was also inspired. We have not ironed out a plan, but we want to begin to today. However, we did spend a few minutes planning what we would do today so that we could maximize our family time on his last free day before working 3 twelves at the hospital. Somehow by nine we had both prayed and exercised and the kids were both ready for the day. That might not seem like a big deal since he was home to help, but somehow on his days off I find myself more distracted and purposeless rather than efficient and productive.
It has been so fun to grow in these little ways with my husband. Last evening at nine-thirty I was becoming so frustrated that our baby was eating precious minutes of Clayton and my evening together by fussing inconsolably. We had also been irritated by two huge flies enjoying the air conditioning of our apartment and no fly swatter. Eventually I got Edmund to sleep and was ready for the tea that Clayton had prepared for me probably a half hour before. I hadn't noticed that the flies had stopped buzzing until I saw Clayton's face puckered up in a laugh. "Is there a fly in there?" I asked. "No, there are two flies in there." We laughed and got sucked into amazon and youtube trying to learn more about eating healthy. Before bed, I realized that in spite of the distractions and less than ideal relaxing evening with my husband, we had enjoyed our time together, and grown a little more in love, after all.
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