It is of a truth that when we don’t get enough rest the night before that our ability to perform our best the next day is highly affected.

Due to selfishness and desire to get things done in the house we’re currently staying in prior to attending to my toddler’s bedtime needs last night, both Bethany and I didn’t get the rest we needed. Bethany outperformed me, of course, in terms of going through the different activities of the day despite of her lack of sleep. She had a lot of energy running around, playing, and doing what most toddlers at her age do. Me? I survived but not with flying colors. The Lord has been gracious and merciful to me though for allowing me to be able to do things I needed to do as a mother without having to go and take a quick nap which is quite impossible to obtain unless Bethany is napping. She napped for only an hour this morning and that was it. She usually naps for about two hours or so each day and gets about 11-12 hours of sleep each night.

So during my worship this morning I begged the Lord to help me be a better person, a better spouse, a better mom (I pray for these everyday) with a strong determination for things to go well today and most of all for all of us to be in bed at a decent time especially Bethany. (Guilt would eat me up and swallow me alive every time I fail to get her to bed at the proper time.) You see, regularity in eating and sleeping is very important to me.

Armed with faith that the Lord will answer my prayer this morning, I went about my day and as I assess the activities today I must say that the Lord did bend from His throne of mercy and answered my request favorably. For the first time in my life as a mother did I actually do fun and creative activities with her the whole day. Praise the Lord Almighty! I also felt like I was actually back in the classroom again teaching students when I gathered materials for our activities and savored the outputs. Quite interesting!

What special things did we do today?

1. Painted using blocks and play dough models
2. Made lunch together–Asian fried rice 🙂
3. Went for a walk and explored the area around using her cart and push car
4. Played tag (She likes running away from me and making sure that I come running after her.)
5. Picked some beautiful rocks from our friends’ yard 😀 (She was so fascinated by her finds until she got shocked to hear Uncle David on the security camera. She kept saying his name over and over in Spanish pronunciation and say “a guy” nth times after that.)
6. Played some cool tunes with water xylophone and ended up giving her a back rub using her xylophone mallet (LOL)
7. “Learned” the concept of float and sink using beans, grains, and an orange (She had a blast on this one especially pushing the orange down over and over and also transferring it to another jar.)
8. Played bowling using a piano bench, a bouncy ball, and six empty water bottles (She’s still trying to figure this out.)
9. Played hockey using wooden spatulas and a bouncy ball (This was fun for her!)
10. Started learning how to “play” the first four notes of Come Bless the Lord –E, E, D, C
11. Read a good night book in the morning —That was cool! 🙂 We obviously need more sleep.
12. Reviewed and learned a few Tagalog words like paa, ilong, ulo. She got kili-kili down since time immemorial. 😃😃😃

Today we didn’t play with her usual toys such as the doll house, play dough, etc. We didn’t read any of her First 100 Board Books, Animals, and other books she loves to read. She asked me to read her prayer book to her. We only finished the first page because I decided to do the science experiments with her. She managed to read it by herself though as I prepared the materials. It was quite an awesome day today. I am so glad that the Lord impressed me to do my exercise in the morning and it did fire me up for the day.

I praise the Lord for all His help today. I wouldn’t have survived it had it not been for His mercy, wisdom, love, and grace. Bethany’s in bed early or on time tonight and mama is here blogging about her day and preparing her ministry posts for tomorrow. What a sweet blessing from the Lord!

When we deprive ourselves of something that it needs such as sleep, it’ll definitely tell us. But we don’t need to let that dictate our day. We must rise to the challenge before us and ask the Lord to help us because He will help—trust me. Then resolve to do better next time. Each day is always a new day.