So, it's been a long weekend. We traveled four hours back to Louisiana on Friday and then the four hours back home to Florida late Saturday night and then had a big, long, good day at church yesterday. It was a weekend filled with family and crawfish and Popeyes and potlucks and post-church service foyer games of tag, BUT IT WAS LONG.
We got home last night and the looming idea of the kid's bedtime routine made me want to carve my eyeballs out with a spoon. The brushing and flossing and flouride-ing. Then the Bible reading and the praying and the cuddling and kissing and re-tucking-in-ing. It's like a whole big, 30 minute process in our house and most nights, I can totally do it. But y'all- last night- IT SO WASN'T GONNA HAPPEN. (Please tell me I'm not the only one who gets burned out by the bedtime routine thing.) Something was going to have to give. I needed to shave some time from our routine, and given the fact that we'd just been at church FOR LIKE ALL DAY, our Bible study time was looking like it was going to be on the chopping block. Please don't judge me for my honesty here, y'all- but skipping the 15 minute reading and just going straight to prayers and cuddles after the tooth brushing montage was looking mighty tempting.
But then it didn't.
I thought about it some more, and realizing that as exhausted as I was and as ready as I was for the day to be DONE, I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to open His word with the kids so I decided to trim the time from another area AND I SENT MY KIDS TO BED WITH DIRTY TEETH INSTEAD. I know, that given my past history with my kids and cavities that foregoing the nightly dental cleansing routine IS NOT IDEAL. On the nights when I just.can.not.deal, the item I usually skip over is our Bible reading because in my mind- cavity prevention thing trumps all the things, but last night I realized that I'd rather spend time cleaning their hearts instead.
I'll do better tonight and they'll go to bed with clean teeth AND hearts, but last night I gave myself permission to break the rules and I felt SO MUCH LESS GUILT over not brushing their teeth than I do when we skip studying and just pray together instead. So tonight I'll do it all, but it felt good to feel good about choosing the right, best choice for us last night. And if one night of dirty teeth leads to a mouth full of cavities, it'll be worth it.
I'm going to work hard this week to make better and wiser and more Godly parenting decisions. (And to brush all the teeth in our house twice a day, EVERY DAY. Bless it)
Happy Monday, y'all!
We got home last night and the looming idea of the kid's bedtime routine made me want to carve my eyeballs out with a spoon. The brushing and flossing and flouride-ing. Then the Bible reading and the praying and the cuddling and kissing and re-tucking-in-ing. It's like a whole big, 30 minute process in our house and most nights, I can totally do it. But y'all- last night- IT SO WASN'T GONNA HAPPEN. (Please tell me I'm not the only one who gets burned out by the bedtime routine thing.) Something was going to have to give. I needed to shave some time from our routine, and given the fact that we'd just been at church FOR LIKE ALL DAY, our Bible study time was looking like it was going to be on the chopping block. Please don't judge me for my honesty here, y'all- but skipping the 15 minute reading and just going straight to prayers and cuddles after the tooth brushing montage was looking mighty tempting.
But then it didn't.
I thought about it some more, and realizing that as exhausted as I was and as ready as I was for the day to be DONE, I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to open His word with the kids so I decided to trim the time from another area AND I SENT MY KIDS TO BED WITH DIRTY TEETH INSTEAD. I know, that given my past history with my kids and cavities that foregoing the nightly dental cleansing routine IS NOT IDEAL. On the nights when I just.can.not.deal, the item I usually skip over is our Bible reading because in my mind- cavity prevention thing trumps all the things, but last night I realized that I'd rather spend time cleaning their hearts instead.
I'll do better tonight and they'll go to bed with clean teeth AND hearts, but last night I gave myself permission to break the rules and I felt SO MUCH LESS GUILT over not brushing their teeth than I do when we skip studying and just pray together instead. So tonight I'll do it all, but it felt good to feel good about choosing the right, best choice for us last night. And if one night of dirty teeth leads to a mouth full of cavities, it'll be worth it.
I'm going to work hard this week to make better and wiser and more Godly parenting decisions. (And to brush all the teeth in our house twice a day, EVERY DAY. Bless it)
Happy Monday, y'all!
