A Valuable Lesson

Yesterday I learned something important that has the potential to help me be a better mother. I realized that when I have good music or general conference playing in our home I don't lose my temper. So I need to keep music like hymns or classical playing or I should be listening to conference while I do chores. I figured this out because yesterday the kids were really hard and I had a lot of chores to get done. I listened to both conference and some hymns preformed by Fiddlesticks. Adam went from breaking something, to hitting someone, to dumping out food etc, and I never even raised my voice at him. Joseph, Rachel, and Anya were taking turns crying this entire time too. The day before I had a really hard time keeping my cool for much smaller things, like when Adam and Rachel took all the labels off the tuna fish. I about blew up. They cleaned, and they went into time out and I made them swear they would never do such a terrible thing again. When Rachel wanted to eat baby food I was pretty mean to her that same day too. So, when I thought, "Hey, why is it so much easier to behave today?" yesterday, I thought back to other times when I listened to conference or hymns and I realized that I have never lost my temper while listening to general conference, and I always feel good when I listen to hymns. I think from this day forward, if I am feeling the slightest bit annoyed, I will put on some good music.