A Moment In Time

 I want to tell you about something marvelous that we do around here. 

 

There was a moment this week that the house was quiet.

 

Quiet Time.

 

It doesn't always go as planned.  It doesn't happen every day.  It isn't always quiet.

 

 

I hear moms of littles talking about how they can't find time to read their Bible or spend time in prayer.  They can't find time to take a shower.  They can't (insert the needed task that should be accomplished). 

 

And some days we won't.  This week I went two days without taking a shower.  But hey, I brushed my teeth! (There were days when Colt was first born that it was like 3pm and I realized I hadn't brushed my teeth yet! There, you can laugh and gasp at my expense:)

 

There are days that the time I spend in devotion with my Savior is reading aloud in The Jesus Storybook Bible, crying out for help and grace in moments of weakness, reading my daily Bible reading while nursing a baby, or trying to pray in the shower while there are little people on the other side of the glass unrolling the toilet paper and reaching for my hair gel.

But I don't think that just because we have littles running around our home that it can be an excuse.  Because it's too easy to become one. 

 

Our quiet times have looked different lately as Declan is now done with a morning nap and Elliana usually doesn't take one.

Timing doesn't always play out the way I plan either.

 

I'm not going to write out different scenarios that we have around here. Some days I wake up early and spend time in the Word so I can use our quiet time for other tasks.  Some days I roll out of bed when I hear crying over a monitor and it seems as though I'm playing catch up all day.  With four children three and under in the house--no two days look the same.

 

I just want you to see this moment in time that happened this week:

I found this little desk at a garage sale for $5

Declan LOVES books! Almost as much as he loves his paci and bear:)

Quiet time.  Stick them in their rooms! If they aren't old enough to be trusted then put them in their cribs. 
And you know what? I don't feel bad about it.  Maybe at first I did.  But I know that I spend a lot of quality time with my children and putting them in their room alone isn't going to damage them.

This will help teach them contentment of playing with what you allow as well as playing alone (one of my children really needs this because she always wants to be around someone and getting attention).

At this moment in time, Elliana was in her room napping.  I haven't tried quiet time with her yet (she has done blanket time) because I haven't wanted to put her in her room all alone like that.

I had two baskets full of their clothes that needed to be put away (which is hard when it's nap time!) so I was in and out of their rooms doing that.  It was so cute because at one point I walked in and Raelynn was reading to Colt (this was the first time he'd been in her room during quiet time)

It was thirty minutes.  And it's amazing what can be accomplished in a short time when I put my mind to it.  Quiet time is part of my sanity.  We used to just do blanket time. And the transition to quiet time went well (other than that one time Raelynn caught us watching her on the moving camera monitor and FREAKED out. Sometimes she still hides the monitor behind a picture frame because "it can see me"). 

This was something that I had never thought of until it was pointed out to me by an older and much wiser woman with grown children.  So I wanted to pass it along to those mamas of littles that are longing for a moment to themselves to either spend quietly seated at the Throne of Grace or maybe just to shave your legs.

Now, if I could just get up to an alarm clock at 5am....