Account Balance

I'm starting to get to that place when everything feels out of control. My house is messy and I'm running to stay caught up at work. I spent a good part of the week trying to get Red Fish into three year old speech programs because they are through the school district and the ones for age two and under are through the health department. So everything has to be reapplied and tested for. There are always hoops to jump through but I think we might actually have a plan. When I get stressed and overwhelmed I have to keep careful track of my account balances.

I try to think of the treatment of my family members as a love account. I can make deposits or withdrawals and I'm in a constant battle between the two extremes. Every time I have a great moment with my kids or teach them something or spend some quality time with my husband, I make a deposit. Every time I am cranky or rush them through childhood or snap at them, I make a withdrawal. I have my own inner account to manage and I need to find ways of filling it up as well. Lately, the best way for me to feel like I'm balanced and secure is to create. I create almost constantly. I've been crafting (which is funny because I never thought of myself as crafty until recently) writing, doing design work and working on projects like a mad woman. I've also been doing a lot of projects with my kids and it has given me some great moments with them. The summer was kind of crazy and didn't leave time for the normal rhythm of our house and I feel like we got some of it back. Our house doesn't look like we are back on track but at least our love accounts have had more deposits than withdrawals this week. Hopefully that is what we will all remember.
I got these awesome scissors because I needed a cheap item to complete a free shipping order. We LOVE them. Red Fish has been learning to cut things with my help and then making a ton of collages. She has been drawing and trying to write bunch as well. She has broken out her cheap watercolors to add to her drawings. I think some of the best moments where I feel most complete and connected to my kids is when I'm teaching them things.
We've also been painting outside quite a bit. I'm going to be sad when it's too cold to hose them off in the backyard. It has been perfect weather lately.

Art and creativity fill up our love accounts even when everything else has gone crazy. Even when the blue paint explodes and my husband arrives home to find three blue smurfs and blue dog in the backyard. We were all laughing our heads off. Winter is going to be hard unless I can think of enough creative endeavors for us to do inside. I should start preparing a list.