a little patience

After yesterdays online class, I thought a lot about having more patience and spending more quality time with my kids. I struggle with this a lot, because I feel like there is always so much to do around home, and so many things to get done at work, etc. I find myself tired and snapping at them when I should just take a deep breath!
My biggest challenge in life is to let the small stuff go, or "don't sweat the small stuff".
This has been very, very hard but I feel as the weeks and months go on this has become easier. Part of A New Earth (the book and online class I mentioned in yesterdays post) that I have already learned is about knowing that you can only control yourself and not what others do. I think I am a little bit of a control freak and I come by it naturally. When I think about mornings around our house I get tense and this is because the girls are so difficult and lots of tantrums occur. I usually react to this but now have a different approach that I hope will work, and become "routine" for me. And who knows it just may be a much smoother time in the mornings for us around here. Today actually went really well and I can say that I did not have one fit from either child. I almost want to pinch myself! When I felt a conflict come up this morning, instead of correcting the girls or trying to change their behavior, I took the class suggestion from yesterday and imagined the kids negative words passing through me instead of staying with me and making me mad. This may sound a little strange, but it really worked. And the best thing is that it was a very simple thing to do, with a much better outcome than in days past. I know it will take some time to become a thing that I don't have to consciously think about, but it will be worth the work if we can have much better time together with the kids.
And with that I am out! And now I can't get the Guns n Roses song out of my head "...a little patience...ya ya."