Chicken noodle soup for the soul?

I've had to make some changes around here.

You see, Audrey is a wonderful sweet baby...until about 4:00. Then she just wants to nurse until 9 or 10pm when she finally falls asleep.

And if she can't nurse, well, the whole block and half the neighborhood are gonna hear her screaming.

So by about 5:00, I'm really ready for my husband to get home.

But he usually doesn't make it home until at least 6:30.

This wouldn't be such a problem if I didn't have two other kids who needed to eat dinner and wanted to spend time with mom. Plus it's just that time of day.

The witching hour.

The time when you need to be getting your well-planned gourmet meal on the table frantically figuring out what to throw together, touching up your makeup and hair changing out of your pajamas so your husband doesn't think you laid around eating bon bons all day, and straightening the decorative pillows shoveling a path to the door.

And as any mom will tell you, toddlers and preschoolers are exceptionally well-behaved usually on the verge of total meltdown during the witching hour.

What this all added up to in our house was a VERY grumpy mommy by the time daddy came home. I would pray for peace and patience. And then I would lose my temper and start snapping and yelling at the kids.

And then one day I was convicted by Proverbs 21:9 Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

It couldn't have been fun for my husband to come home from work to a grumpy wife. I wasn't having any fun. The kids definitely weren't having any fun. And our budget was suffering from the number of times we ordered pizza and carside to go meals.

A friend shared Proverbs 17:1 with me Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife.

And I realized that this is a season that will pass. In order to keep peace in my house and not be in total meltdown by the end of the day, I'm going to have to simplify the evenings. My big realization was this-

It's ok to have canned soup and cereal for dinner.

In fact, God would rather we eat Campbell's from a can than a gourmet meal if it means I'm yelling and seething on the inside.

So tonight, we're proudly having tomato soup.

And if things don't work out, we just might have Cheerios tomorrow.