When you have more ideas than time...

Advent season is here. This is the the year we were going to have an awesome advent. We were going to print out a calendar, make a cute fabric bunting to go along with it, complete with a scripture for every day, along with a craft for every day.

We were going to bake cookies to give away. Make gingerbread houses. Make homemade marshmallows (we may still do this, they sound yummy!). Bag up some goody bags for the homeless. Fill some boxes for Operation Christmas Child....

My list was endless.

It's December 5th today, and you know what we've done? We've watched some Christmas movies. We pulled out and set up our fake tree (it has about 10 ornaments on it so far), and set up our Disneyland Railroad to ride around the tree. I bought the kids some peppermint mocha cake pops from Starbucks, because making anything in my kitchen right now is out of the question.  And let me just say, I NEVER buy the kids sweets from a bakery, or coffee shop. I didn't want them to know that the same place I get coffee has stuff kids like :)

I see my Facebook newsfeed, and feel a bit like a failure when I see that someone's elf did an amazing thing overnight, or got into some fun mischief, and I think of our elf stuffed in a box. I wasn't planning on doing the elf thing this year, but I did find a great Christmas Star theme I was going to follow. I see crafts these moms are making with their kids, and I feel bad that my kids are just making tents in the living room.

Then I was reminded, I am in a different season of life. I tend to forget (or try to work against) the season I am in. I am in the season of dirty diapers, diaper laundry up to my ears, hungry kiddos who are too young to cook, bathe or really help out around the house on their own. The moms that I see doing all this great stuff have kids a little bit older, or less kids. That fact slips my mind when I see how their advent plans are going.

So this year, and probably next year, and quite possibly the year after that, it is our season to just.slow.down. I'm okay to pop in a Christmas movie and call that our advent celebration. I might go ahead and buy cookie dough from my neighbor to make our Christmas cookies, because making cookies with 4 extra sets of helping hands just does not appeal to me.

I read this amazing blog post yesterday, and it literally made me cry. I read it just after I had posted a question in a group I'm in, asking how moms of a lot of little ones manage to get anything at all done.

Moms of little ones, remember, you can't do it all, and you are not expected to do it all. I'm going to try and remember that too.