All the fuss about Inconsistency.

Happy Friday! 

I've finally found a moment to myself after this breakneck week. Parenting kids through transition is not for the faint of heart. We've not gotten it right 100% of the time, but everyone is surviving and it's finally the weekend! 

A bit of a whine, was anyone else a little over the eclipse hype? It was very neat to watch and the math behind calculating the path/time/totality/etc blows my mind. But the hype... I'm too tired for that! 

I sent Dominic this hilarious comedy clip "The Nothing Box." I remain amazed by his ability to decide to not think about anything at all! I'm not being mean, I'm impressed and wish I could access this magic Nothing Box! Our brief laugh over the video was the extent of our conversation one night. Our jobs have called for more energy, the children needed more of us, very little time left for a hello, let alone the good spanking I regularly require.

During early days of ttwd, I felt threatened and insecure by "inconsistency." Various blogs and "how to" sites warned against letting inconsistency doom your dynamic. While I glow and thrive in Dominic's leadership, it's an unrealistic standard to prioritize particularly in this season of life. Our frustrations when infractions could not be dealt with led to some breaks during our time in this dynamic. While our roles were not completely absent, good lengths of time might pass where my tongue ran unleashed, we bickered... settling back into more pre-ttwd ways. We'd snap out of it eventually and press on.  After our last unintentional break, we acknowledged very intentional communication was required to keep us from sliding into another drought. 

While this summer has been q u i t e consistent, other responsibilities came first this week.  We know if I'd been given a reminder when my tone slipped early in the week, my tone would have been much more respectful all week. In the early days of ttwd, I'd have been hurt and frustrated that he didn't address my infraction right away. While I've not been punished, we are both aware that the issue happened, that it's not okay, and the only reason I'm not paying for it this very minute is because of life. 

I cannot force us to prioritize a spanking over sleep. Yes, a good spanking and post-spanking activities will often give me wonderful sleep. We're running the marathon of life on fumes this week so discipline can wait until we've slept. Theres's only so much sleep to begin with when the last child finally falls asleep around 10 PM, you know another will be in your room by 1:30 AM, and alarms start blaring in the 5 AM window...) 

Dominic works well more than 40 hours a week and thankfully is very engaged with raising our kids, the endless tasks that come with home & car ownership, sharing the load of housework with me, and killing whatever wasp I'm convinced is attacking us all. (I believe it's known as "adulting" these days). 🤦 While everyone blessedly fell asleep early tonight, I have to respect that he needs to decompress so he can lead well. I don't know about you, but I would rather not go over the knee of a exhausted, frustrated spanker.

The spanking I've earned will come, I am 100% confident of that. We rarely go this long without some kind of spanking, but it is what it is. It's not a referendum on our commitment to this dynamic. Yes, I'd really rather have gotten spanked Sunday than await and anticipate. But that's what this dynamic looks like this week. Accepting these types of weeks and pressing on in spite of things not being exactly what we think it should be is the grace required for ttwd to be part of who we are, not a thing we try to do a certain way.