When There's Love At Home...

And here I always thought our last name was WRIDE. The kids keep changing it to this...

So I'm going a little crazy lately. Trying to figure things out. So far I've figured out:

How to take care of the baby (she's an angel)
How to get dinner on the table (thank you Food Nanny - 3 weeks of dinner on the table EVERY NIGHT, thank you!! So far so good...)
How to get in my exercise (Go Bodyrock.tv)

I have NOT figured out:

How to clean the house
How to get the kids to help me clean the house.
How to get the kids to put away their socks and shoes and backpacks and toys and paper airplanes and... well, I guess that all falls under cleaning.
How to get the kids to be nice to each other

Those things that I haven't figured out are making our home feel very chaotic. Fighting Kids + lots-o-messes everywhere = CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) I'm trying to figure out how to have Love At Home ~ cue angelic voices ~ but am at a bit of a loss. But I've been watching lots of BYUtv lately - I nurse Sophia on our bed and usually grab the remote as I go to lay down and I watch tv until she's done and then try to sneak off, or stay and have a nap with her. So today I watched a BYU Idaho devotional by Shirley Klein called "Every Good Gift" given September 28 2010 - Here is an older talk that she gave in 2005 that has a lot of the same things she talked about in the 2010 address - it is EXCELLENT. I've printed it up and am hoping it will help me make a plan of attack.

So, here's a story, as I was listening to this talk by Sister Klein about how to make our homes sacred, I hear Hyrum totally screaming like a banshee, gnashing his teeth and wailing how he hates Ethan and he's the worst brother ever, I try to tune that out and listen to Sister Klein's encouraging words about home and heaven, then my ears tune back into the noise downstairs where I hear Corey leading the children in chanting "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" and I just shake my head in amused disbelief.

I thought Corey probably would appreciate my help managing the kids, but I had to keep listening to the talk cause I didn't catch her name at the beginning of the address and had to get her name cause I knew I needed to get her talk and reference it again. So I was able to listen to the rest of the talk and got her name, then came down stairs where I was glad to hear things had calmed down. I told Corey what I had been listening to and we both had a good laugh at the irony of the "fight-fight" chanting I was hearing as I listened to her sermon on how to make a happy home. Funny situation, and Corey told me it was Abi and Wes that were having a disagreement when Corey lead that chant. And he wasn't really encouraging violence, it was just his survival instincts of how to handle kids that were out of control. Gotta embrace it sometimes, the only way out is through!
Lily and Abi painted their faces again today. Corey came to inform me what they were doing, and I gave the thumbs up - right now as long as they're being nice and playing quietly, I don't care.


Poor Corey - all he wants is a little peace and quiet, is that too much to ask for?

So is there a handbook out there on "Parenthood Survival 101" or anything like that? Feel free to pass along any tricks of the trade that you've discovered in your journey. :)

"In your wildest dreams you could not imagine the marvelous SURPRISES that await YOU!"

Also Elder Uchtdorf's talk from last night's Relief Society Broadcast was wonderful, I especially needed to here the advice he gave about being happy NOW. He talked about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and how in that story the chance of winning the golden ticket made the people forget what once brought them joy - the candy bar itself, and how finding only a candy bar became a disappointment. My golden ticket is a happy and smoothly running home, but I need to remember to enjoy the candy bar - the delightful moments that occur everyday.