Galentine's Day and Lenten plans

My little Valentines...or should I say, Galentines?

Let's be honest, either way my heart is full with them, each and every day.

That being said - parenting lately has been especially challenging. I think it's more me that's the problem, but we're going through some naughty stages and man, a day is a lot harder to get through when timeouts pepper the entire day. We had a really good stretch of playing together nicely, and tantrum-less weeks, but they're back in full force and the constant disciplining takes it out of me.

Plus, Cora is trying valiantly to drop one of her naps which I am NOT about (umm, Kate took 2 naps every day until she was 2), so she's tired and teething and that makes me tired because honestly nothing is worse than battling a tiny human who needs to sleep but just won't because they're stubborn.

For my mental health I've taken to escaping into my room to get like 5-10 minutes of peace and quiet when I can find it, or shoving the children into David's arms when he gets home while I go run errands or work out or sit in our room and read. At this point it seems to be the best I can do. My work still has to get done each and every day, and a regular babysitter doesn't make sense fiscally right now, so I'm taking the calm when I can snatch at it.

I know one of my biggest struggles with parenting is unrealistic expectations. I have very high standards for my literal small children, and they can't live up to them because they are small children. That battle between what I expect of them and what they can actually do is really hard on my personality. I know it's going to be something I struggle with for years, because hello, grown up humans don't even do what I want them to every hour of every day. 

I'm trying to teach myself to react calmly instead of yelling, trying to take a deep breath before I react, trying to remind myself over and over that they're just kids, that this will pass, that everything isn't built around my ultimate happiness and satisfaction. The world doesn't revolve around me, and really it shouldn't because that would be a super easy way to devolve into a horrible, selfish monster.

And honestly, I have really beautiful and easy small children as small children go. They are great sleepers at night. They love playing together most of the time. They have happy, relatively easy-going personalities. I know all these things in my head, I really do. So I should be more grateful instead of counting all the things that disappoint me every hour.

This Lent, for my prayer aspect, I'm going to attempt to say a prayer every time my kids frustrate me, even if it's just a quick "LORD JESUS HELP ME" before I respond, which is honestly already like 90% of my prayer these days. I'm giving up getting coffee outside of the house, which will also legitimately sanctify me because that's been my coping mechanism in this never-ending winter for every little thing that frustrates me, and that's a bad habit. I'm also going to wear my retainer every night -- a weird Lenten goal, I know, but I need to do it and it will be a bit of a pinch, which is the goal, right? David and I haven't decided what we're doing for almsgiving yet, but we have like 24 hours left to decide, so we'll figure it out. 

I'd love to hear what you're giving up, and if you struggle with the same thing in parenting: you are SO not alone.