Making Your Home Sing - The Where-Did-My-Day-Go Edition

Okay, before I share with you my thoughts about our upcoming week, I thought I'd share with you a little something that made me chuckle all day long.

Every morning (internet allowing) we talk to Superman before he heads off for bed (he's 11 hours ahead of us)...that means he's heard and seen how under the weather we've been these past few weeks. He's seen how we look and how we sound. You would think that would give him a pretty good feel for what was going on, right? Wrong! This morning Superman informed me that he knew I was really sick because I haven't been posting on my blog. Seriously! I burst out laughing. Yes, even Superman judges my wellness based on my blog posts. Come on...you have to admit that is funny, isn't it?

Okay, back to business. It is Making Your Home Sing Monday and I feel like we missed an entire week. Last week passed in a blur. Sometimes your body just forces you to slow down and for me, that time came last week. After celebrating Valiant's birthday, we circled the wagons and hunkered down. All non-essential activities were canceled. We even canceled Craft Night/Game night. The end result? It worked. I'm on the mend and Buttercup, who is four days behind me with this "plague", is getting better even faster.

Making My Home Sing? My kids are singing a happy song because Mom is not just going through the motions this week. Don't get me wrong...I've done everything I needed to in the past few weeks, but my best just wasn't very good and the kids knew it. They took advantage of it. What? You thought they were perfect? Oh, they are...perfect "children", which means they got more and more lax and more and more mouthy as the time progressed. They even got rude on Skype while Dad or LoveAphid could hear. (Oh yea, they were getting that comfortable with themselves!)

What? My kids are happy to have me clamping down and nipping this rebellion at the bud? Definitely. Our children need us to be parents. Not buddies, not roommates, but parents. They need us to be in charge and set the pace and create order in their world. Sometimes circumstances change, but our kids need us to be back in charge as soon as we can.

We've had two days of amazing weather here in Eastern Washington. Bright beautiful days have revitalized me. Sunshine and warm weather have helped me get physically better and, frankly, did wonders for my mood, too. I woke up full of energy this morning and I had great intentions to get blogging before I got to work today, but the sunshine and feeling good for the first time in weeks was just too tempting, so I'm posting this at 9:30 at night.

So, what did I do with my beautiful children today? Well, let's see. We cleaned up bedrooms, vacuumed the house, dusted, made a trip to the dump with our recyclables, made too trips to the Goodwill Donation drop-off, made it to WalMart to buy $4 sheets to make a new futon cover for the futon in Buttercup's room, and even had time to have a "wall cleaning party". We also spent time in the greenhouse sowing our vegetable seeds and transplanting Buttercup's tomato plant (which has flowers again!). This evening, Valiant manned the barbecue all by himself and served some terrific hamburgers to his sister and me.

The best part? None of this was tough. The children were cheerful participants and none of it seemed rushed or forced. Proof positive that Mom's attitude really does determine the mood of the household, even when our attitude is a symptom of something else. My children were cheerfully doing chores, cheerfully helping each other and me to get the things done we always do. I don't know what we'll be singing...I just know that we will. And that, my friends, is such a wonderful feeling.

So, Happy Monday to you all...may it be a fantastic week at your house. Don't forget to get some inspiration by heading over to Momstheword's to see what everyone else has been thinking about this week.