Heading off the Grouchies

Happy Good Friday to all! We have Easter festivities to attend to today, including an egg hunt for the kids, so today will be plenty busy for us. My kids are super excited (I almost put eggcited, but I decided against such corniness..hehe) and when they get up we will be dyeing away. I have prayed my thoughts will not stray far from the Crucifixion today and I will continually gaze upon the suffering of my Saviour for my sin and shame. Even today I have used His shed blood to cleanse away a few impurities in my life that I became aware of in prayer.

Yesterday was a pretty intense day for me, I’ll confess. We have had Revival this week, and mostly, I have still been getting up early to have my quiet time. A combination of late nights, early mornings, stressful events, inappropriate thinking (feeling sorry for myself a bit), and PMS (yes, the dreaded), has ushered in the Grouchies.

Lest I should appear to be someone who has it together all the time (HA!), I thought I would admit that every now and then, I get the grouchies. Especially during that time.

By the way, I’ll interrupt here to say if you know of any natural recommendations (herbs, etc.) to ward off PMS symptoms, please feel free to share!

Yesterday as I was rushing around, I was begging God to crucify this PMS in my life. I know it is normal for women, but frankly, it makes me a less than joyful Christian woman. I don’t like what it does to me. I didn’t feel the symptoms subside, but I did feel Him gently nudge a suggestion by way.

Why don’t you write down the things that make you most irritable during this time and write down possible solutions to ward off these stresses before they become, stresses?

Good idea, thanks!

1. Doing things that require a certain time to do them in. (i.e. volunteering to having a cake made for an event by 11, for instance).

• Don’t volunteer during this time, or
• Don’t feel bad about picking something up already baked at the grocery store
• Have your mom bake it for you (ha! She would!)
• Do it in the early morning or late at night.

*This is probably not the time to have the kids help you in the kitchen. Just saying.

2. House messes. (During this time, the house mess can be chaotically multiplied by 1000)

• Enlist the children to do more during this time (but don’t give them ‘new’ chores that you will have to show them how to do…remember your patience is thin)
• If you are busy doing an busy activity (cooking, etc) that requires the children to have free play time (read:messes), put the older children at the table with coloring books, and have the littles play on the bed with some ‘rarely brought out’ toys or in the crib until you are finished. Don’t be afraid to use the Dvd player. :)
• As you go through the house, pick up what is in your path. The longer it sets there, the more irritable you will become.

3. Children.

(What bothers me the most during this time is either my children not keeping their hands to themselves OR them asking the same thing over and over (yesterday, it was one in particular kept asking if we could dye eggs, which we couldn’t because I had a certain deadline to meet, see #1)

• Set rules in the mornings. Explain to them that this will be a busy day and mom needs them to cooperate with her, do what is asked, keep their hands to themselves, etc. The first time something is asked to be done (i.e. dying eggs) that can’t be done, tell them that there will be no time today, but if there happens to be extra time, it will only be done if you haven’t asked mom over and over.

4. Cooking.

(Why is it that “I’m Hungry” seems to bother us more during that time?)

• Bake a loaf of bread in the mornings so kids will have something to eat on while you are busy.
• Set out a tray of cut up veggies, fruit, and dip.
• Take the kids for a rare trip out to eat. Lest the restaurant experience be stressful for your less-than-put-together state, take them to the park to eat and run free.

5. Spills, Breaks, Accidents, etc.

(During this time, the slightest spill of milk, water, whatever, can really trigger the nerves. I do try my hardest not to let the irritation show, but sometimes I am wiping up the spills a little more, um, vigorously than usual because I am hiding my irritation.)

• Use sippy cups for all kids! :)

Hope these suggestions will be helpful for you. I did have some individual/personal things that I could write down, but they probably wouldn’t apply to everyone, so I tried to keep things down to the ‘basic struggles’ that most moms probably face during this time. If you have any suggestions I would LOVE to hear them. I would suggest that you don’t miss your devotions with the Lord during this time of the month. You don’t want to have to blame lack of prayer in your life along with the PMS symptoms. My flesh in itself is bad enough without PMS. I can’t imagined the two combined! :)

God Bless you today.

PS. There are several blogs that I read that I haven’t been able to comment on because my computer is acting up. It says I need to delete my cookies or something when I go to comment. I have no idea how to delete cookies except by digesting them in my stomach (PMS binge eating, anyone?)  I hope to get that fixed soon. I am enjoying reading each of your blogs and they are such a help to me.