Suffering without Sun

Summer is officially here….at least in the schedule sense….certainly not in the weather sense.  We’ve been cooped up inside for weeks while it rains.  We thought we moved to the sunniest place in the U.S. four years ago, but it’s more like living in Seattle lately. The first two weeks I spent being thankful for the rain that would prevent devastating fires brought on by summer’s heat.  I was amazed and amused the third week of rain and made jokes about building an ark.  My patience had worn thin by week four, both with the weather and my children.  My husband suggested I take Vitamin D to offset my deficiency of sunshine.  I started researching UV lights.  And then the sun came out.  I ran to the window and shielded my eyes.  Sunshine is surely medicine to the soul!

Now that the sun is a normal part of life again, and I’m back to being emotionally stable, I can laugh at some of my mothering moments from the past month.  I threatened my boys with going to bed without dinner one night when they forgot to bring their manners to the table.  I informed my boys they would never play with a certain friend again after a playdate riddled with fighting.  My personal favorite was telling my twins they would NEVER again push the handicap door buttons at the gym after being subjected to their bickering over this subject for a full thirty minutes before we arrived at the gym. I’ve rarely thrown out crazy consequences during my mothering tenure, but hit an all-time high this month.  It just felt so good to let craziness come out of my mouth, and thankfully my boys aren’t quite old enough to tell me I’m crazy:-)

I’m back to showing more understanding and grace.  And while I can laugh about my month of being a crazy mama, I know deep down that this isn’t the type of mom God made me to be.  He made me to show love and grace that will point my children to His love and grace.  All the Sunday School classes, years in Christian preschool and summers in Vacation Bible School can’t replace them seeing me act out God’s love every day (okay, let’s be realistic….MOST days).  It’s good to have the sun back.  It’s good to be back to myself.  And I’ll probably just order that UV lamp from Amazon….just in case!