My first month in my New Year's Challenge to BE A BETTER MOM is over today, and let me tell you it was hard.   I learned a lot about myself, our family, my kids and how dang selfish this momma can be sometimes.   I would say that I did what I set out to do about 80% of the time and for that I'm proud and also disgusted all in the same thoughts.  Proud because I accomplished my goal about 80% of the time and disgusted that I chose my own comfort and desires over my kids and the peace in my home 20% of the time.

I will continue getting up because I'm still in the middle of my HELLO MORNING CHALLENGE, but honestly this is a discipline that I want to continue to work on because I see the fruit of it.  When you see the fruit of something you want to continue to work on it.  Even on the days that you feel selfish, always in the back of your mind you know what you should do because you have seen the fruit.

On the days that I lay in bed and snooze for an hour and a half (yes that happened this month) our mornings are terrible.  Kids are cranky and I'm cranky and then dad's cranky and you know what …. our house is no fun.  I hate to send my kids off to school when our mornings have just out right sucked, and y'all that is what happens when I chose my own comfort over my God-given role as momma to these four kids.  I do believe that God has placed me here to parent them and to do that the best that I know how, and I know that for me getting up is a huge factor in the way our house runs in the morning.

When I get up I'm not dressed, showered and ready to go out on the town, but I am up, brushed my teeth, and spent time reading my bible.  The consistency of being in the word before I get my kids up has done so much for me.  To put my mind on the words of Jesus as I read through the gospels has affected me each morning.  Literally my house is dark, except for the light over the table where I sit.  There is no sound except when my dog Scout breathes heavy to let me know I've interrupted her REM sleep. It's me, my glass of water, my bible, my prayer cards and the whole day ahead of me.

There is something beautiful about that.

Kissing my kids on the faces as I wake them up is joyous to me and such a better way to start the day then them waking me up and me realizing we are about 32 minutes late for school already and we've not even eaten breakfast!