Embrace the Process

This weekend, we cleaned house. We organized and sorted and decluttered.

There was a part of me that just wished I had a whole weekend to myself to get the job done. But I made a point to involve Flanna in the process, to give her little tasks to do along the way, so that she could feel a part of the pride once everything was clean. She folded a bit of laundry, picked up crayons, cleaned up blocks, and, yes, she also made quite a few messes during the process, too! (One of my friends on Facebook wrote recently that cleaning up the house when you have kids is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos. I find that to be pretty accurate!) But it was kind of fun to listen to music together while buzzing around the apartment. And what a treat to have some clutter cleared away!

One of the best times I had this weekend was this morning, when Flanna woke scarily early at 6 a.m., and instead of turning the TV on so she could watch cartoons (which was my first instinct at that early hour!), I decided that we were going to make french toast together. I let her crack the eggs and stir, and she did a really nice job. Yes, it took me probably four times as long to make breakfast with my little helper than it would've had I done it on my own. But I'm trying to embrace the process a bit more these days. And it was pretty rewarding to see her get better at cracking the eggs each time she tried.




What goal are you working toward right now? How can you embrace the process and find fun along the way as you work toward that goal?


By the way, speaking of processes, Flannery is currently obsessed with the life cycle of birds. She pretends every ball we own is an egg ready to hatch a baby chick any minute. This morning, she drew, "a mommy chicken who laid an egg, then the baby pecks the egg with its beak, then the baby chick hatches out of the egg." She drew this all on her own, and I just loved how she made the little beak and wings and feet of the birds. Check out her picture above. What an artist!