I'm Gonna Count to Ten

This morning was a rough morning at the Miller's. Reese was up in the night due to cough symptoms, Nora was in a bad mood and would not get ready for school despite numerous attempts at trying to get her to do so, and I had attempted to do Reese's hair five times before we even made it in the car.  On top of all of this, my stress level is once again elevated due to my Mom being hospitalized once again =0( Like I usually do, once I had the OOC children in the car, I started talking to them about how I did not like their behavior this morning and that it was not acceptable. Nora was not liking what I was saying and in response, said to me, "Mama, I'm gonna count to 10 and then you need to change your behavior". WOW. Eat my own words. She was right. I was acting nasty, I was taking advantage of my children to vent my anger. I was just plain acting wrong. Unfortunately, even though I don't mean to, my kiddos, especially Nora, tend to get the brunt of my nasty actions. It's unintentional and I feel awful that it ends up this way, but it is something I am working on. I need to be reminded daily that they are blessings, that this time is just a stage and that despite it feeling like it is tough, life regardless of how inconvenient, rough, sad, unexplainable, etc. it may be is indeed a GIFT. A gift that has a limited number of days before ending! So, thanks Nora for the reality check. You are right, I DO need to change my behavior... and thanks for giving me the extra five seconds to do so (I count to five before they get a consequence for their bad behavior)!