Small Little Accomplishments

As a mother of two little ones, I praise myself every day for small little accomplishments, like today I entered my addresses into my Print Shop address book so that I can make labels for Christmas cards. Yesterday, my accomplishment was babysitting my printer as it furiously spat out my Christmas letters, sometimes requiring a trash toss or ten, first when the color ink gave up the ghost and then when the black ink took its turn. The day before that, it was editing the Christmas letter, and before that it was writing the letter. You see, these small little accomplishments can only happen about once a day, sometimes every other day, with little ones around, because the dishwasher still needs to be emptied and reloaded; shifts of laundry still scream at me from the washer and dryer; bare cupboards’ tummies loudly growl, waiting to be filled; the girls still need quality play time with Mommy, and oh, they also need to eat, be bathed, be monitored at all times, swept and straightened up after, and so forth. Life with little ones still has to function like it does the other 364 days a year, even with the holiday rush of last-minute online shopping, candy making, gift wrapping (ha! think I actually had time for this yet?), attending and planning Christmas parties, preparing Christmas Sunday school lessons, and whatnot.

Although there is also something about little ones that rings true as well: Holidays just aren’t quite as fun without them.