The Day Kayla Punched Me In The Face, With Her Wisdom

Before I start this post, I feel I need to make a very important correction. I have made a pretty big mistake when I compared my daughter to a gremlin.  I have come to realize, she is in fact E.T.'s sister!

See the resemblance? Now I know why she wants my phone all the time!  

Now, on to the point. As I mentioned before, we moved.  What I didn't talk about was the downsize of the move.  The house we lived in before this was a 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bathroom two story house with a basement.  It was the first house we have lived in that wasn't a one bathroom ranch style house and I thought I would love it!  However, I quickly came to find out that having those 2 1/2 bathrooms means you have to clean 2 1/2 bathrooms.  And having an extra bedroom and two extra rooms on the main floor, gave the girls three rooms to fill with toys. But I still enjoyed the space because the girls have a lot of stuff.

But we moved, and we are now  back to the ranch style house.  I was dreading it as we packed up our house, because where in the world will all of the stuff go?  I realized we were going to have to part with all of those baby toys we are storing for that imaginary third baby we are never going to have, because to be clear I'm still not pregnant.  So we have finally made the move, and slowly we are unpacking the boxes and I know eventually we will find a place for all of that stuff I couldn't bring myself to part with.  

That isn't the thing that has amazed me over the past two weeks though, it's my girls.  I thought moving into the smaller house would be harder on them, but they love it. Every afternoon when I pick them up all they talk about is wanting to go to the new house.  They tell me how they love our new house more than the old house.  And while they are still drama filled girls, they don't fight as much. 

The girls have had a blast and aren't just asking to watch movies all the time. They seem clueless to the fact I have donated a ton of their toys! They are helping us set up their new playroom, which is our unfinished basement.  I thought they would hate it, but they spend hours down there now because they have so much space to play.  Yes to be fair, while we downsized space, the basement is the perfect set up for the girls. Their imagination is coming to life again.  Not that Kayla and Abby were ever boring, their playing imagination seemed to be on winter break though.  On their own, they have set up a house area and a grocery store.  They have even taken bike rides around the basement.

My girls have been my living proof that less really is more.  They don't need every toy ever made or 6000 different playrooms.  They have a few toys on our amazing porch which is all windows and heated (it has turned into the new favorite room for all of us), but otherwise they play in the basement or hang out in their room.  And they are the happiest kids ever the past few weeks.  So of course this only brings me back to that big glaring flaw I have, over commitment.  If I have seen that less is more why do I continue to constantly book every minute of my life?

This became very obvious this past week.  I wasn't home this week, and no I wasn't travelling or anything like that. I spent outside of sleeping, maybe six hours at home from Monday-Saturday morning. Thursday after being gone all day and getting home at 9:30pm Kayla made the comment that I am never home and it was like a punch to the face.  The last thing any mom or parent wants is the guilt you haven't been around for your kids. I did a horrible job of putting my family first this past week.  Now, to be clear, I don't always neglect my kids and Bryon.  Normally my weeks aren't quite that hectic, this just happened to be one of those times where everything fell on the same week.  

I'm sure you are all sitting there thinking to yourself, "but Lindsay you said you were going to start saying NO occasionally this year.  Have you neglected your New Years Resolution already?"  And to those of you who are saying that I would respond with a silent glare first, but then I would say...Yes I did!  So far this year, I haven't bought a guitar, I haven't gotten a sewing machine, and I am even more over committed than usual. If anything my five year old calling me out has given me hope that I may still succeed in at least one of my resolutions. Because I had the eye opener of the past week, I  realized the time has come to learn that dreaded N word, NO.  For the sake of my kids and Bryon, who has stepped up and helped out WITHOUT COMPLAINING, while I run around with my head cut off.  I like to think I can do it all, but until I have the ability of flight or time travel, it's just not going to happen.  Until then I have to start living by the less is more mantra.  The less I commit to, outside of work, the more I get to enjoy my awesome kids in our new house that they love.  

So to wrap up just remember, Abby=ET not gremlin, If you do buy a smaller house make sure it has an amazing basement, and STOP ASKING ME TO HELP YOU WITH STUFF.  All of you enablers know who you are!