Good ole “Paper Mountain”. I’ve been hiking that thar mountain for the past couple of weeks (hence my disappearance from world of Raw Mom blogging last week), and it’s about time I pitched my flag at the top and declared that mountain “Conquered”.

However, that would be wishful thinking. I’m still climbing up, making all sorts of lovely discoveries along the way (“Oh, that article I clipped last September – it’s still so interesting!”) and generally getting my life back in order. Cue a huge, audible sigh of relief. This is the spring clean I should have had when it actually was spring – over here in Australia, it’s autumn (fall)!

But I haven’t just been drowning in paperwork. I’ve also been working on something big. Really big. You may remember that my previous two blogs were parts one and two of a blogging series on money? Well, part three is to be revealed next week, and with it will be a free gift for you! So, make rawmom.com your home page and keep your eyes peeled for next week’s blog. Hopefully, you’ll love your free gift as much as I do!

Despite the chaos that threatens to engulf my desk (in order to force myself to get it sorted as soon as possible, I moved all of it onto the kitchen table today – I’ll have to have it sorted and cleared by tomorrow morning, so that we can have breakfast there!), I do have an oasis of calm right by my computer monitor. It’s a copyboard with a photo of my girls at two years of age, a wedding photo of the dashing Darren and I, a cartoon pic of a goofy-looking man leaping up with joy (I call him my “joie de vivre man”!) and a printout of some wise words.

I just love reading those wise words, as they help center me and remind me of what’s important. While I know it’s great to have boundaries, gentle discipline, and order when it comes to raising children, it doesn’t hurt to be reminded that there’s nothing more important than really connecting with my children.

They’re oft-quoted words, but I love them:

If I had my child to raise again

I’d build self-esteem first and the house later;

I’d fingerpaint more and point the finger less;

I’d do less correcting and more connecting;

I’d take my eyes off my watch and watch with my eyes;

I would care to know less and know to care more;

I’d take more hikes and fly more kites;

I’d stop playing serious and seriously play;

I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars;

I’d do more hugging and less tugging;

I’d see the oak tree in the acorn more often;

I would be firm less often and affirm much more;

I’d model less about the love of power and more about the power of love.

I’m off to play with my babies. See you next week.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 4:06 pm by Stacey and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.