I Love You...but, I MUST do dishes

Life in this Harner house has been in a transition lately.
A certain two year old and his momma are having an extremely difficult time adjusting to a new little boy needing my time and affection.

I find myself saying these things OVER and OVER and OVER all day long:

"Yes, I will play that game AFTER I ......"
"Hold on, just a few minutes..."
"I said, 'Yes,' but first I have to...."
"I would LOVE to read that book, just let me finish..."

It's not that I ignore my children. It's just that requests for playtime occur every 10 seconds. Then I feel like a terrible mother for not dropping everything and playing each at each and every request. It's a vicious cycle.

I am not a major advocate for spending 24/7 playing and interacting with my children. I believe they need time to play alone. I also believe that I need time to cook, clean, and plan unless I want to raise my children in filthy chaos.

So, the other day, I admitted defeat to my mom and my husband. I said, "I'm can't do this." All the while, God was reminding me that He wouldn't have given me these boys if I COULDN'T do it.

Then I remembered this term: LOVE TANK.

You know what I'm getting at. Samuel's love tank must obviously be low....

find it on Amazon.com, here

I'm a HUGE believer in the LOVE LANGUAGES theory. I believe it with my whole heart. I'm astounded by it. I couldn't wait to have children to discover their love languages.

Little did I realize, those children could have love languages completely opposite of my own. And it appears that for this season, my toddler does.....

(I recommend brushing up on the Love Languages on their site, here. I even took a test for my child to get an idea of his love languages - the results were pretty much what I expected.)

I am very much a Words of Affirmation and Physical Touch...and Receiving Gifts type of gal...(but on the gifts, who isn't??? :) ).

My toddler is very much a Quality Time and Acts of Service type child. Both of which languages, I am not too adept at speaking. He also enjoys Words of Affirmation, which I can handle with ease - I mean, who couldn't with this face???

perhaps I'm biased, but I can't resist that ornery sparkle in his eyes...

I can handle the Acts of Service...we religiously look for toys that need "rescuing." (thanks to Team UmiZoomi) I just need to find ideas and more specific ways to fill this ornery little Love Tank. So, I searched Pinterest (what other reliable soure would I use??) I found this great chart:

Found on The Catholic Connection, here

Now, I just need to find a way to find more time to spend with him while caring for an infant and trying to upkeep the house. I can feel another blog post coming from this...."How I Found Time for Quality Time"

...God gave me these boys...He knows I can handle it all....with my hand fiercely grasping His and pleading for wisdom ;)