sleep? nah.

Last night I fell asleep before I wrote my blog. I woke up to see that I was still on the starting page of the blog and I hadn't written a word!  Whoops - I guess my tiredness got the best of me.

I keep trying to remind myself that this exhaustion is just a stage.  It keeps my hope alive that someday I will get a full night's sleep.  Some night my daughter won't ask to sleep on my floor at 2:30.  Some night my son won't wake up an hour later to join her.  Some day my husband won't work nights (without trying to explain the complexities of the night shift, this usually means that I am hanging out later into the night on his nights off). Some day I will sleep an entire night through.

But I think of my future and realize that might not be happening any time soon.  It won't be long before I am waiting up at night to make sure my daughter gets home safe from her friend's house.  Or I'll be up waiting for one of my children to be driving home from a sporting event.  Or I will be staying up late to spend time watching movies or talking with my kids. 

Oh sleep, I miss you!

So this might be a pretty long stage in my life.  Currently, I am embracing short naps and a few long ones and as much caffeine as I can get from my strawberry iced tea. Honestly, this stage of life while my children are young is going to pass so quickly. I keep reminding myself that they are only this size for a bit of my (hopefully) long life.  My son is only 5 for one year out of the 50 or so that I've got left.  Goodness, I love his little 5-year-old self.  And my daughter is growing up so quickly.  I will only be able to pour my knowledge and life experiences into her for so long before she starts making life-changing decisions on her own.  

So, I will trade my sleep for this period of time so that I can cherish and grow my children.  And every morning I ask for a refreshing of the Holy Spirit, for renewed strength and energy for the entire day.  Then I hit the snooze button 3 more times (as per an earlier conversation with friends about how useful the snooze button is) and then get up and (slowly) get going.

But you probably want to wait to talk to me until I have been up at least an hour.  I'm not saying that I'm crabby... It's just that my numerous side takes a bit longer to wake up!

Heading to bed now,

KC