Embrace the Day

There I was, standing in the shower.  I was walking the water temperature tight rope balancing act that we all do.  Turn the knob one degree to the left and you risk boiling the flesh right off your body; turn it the slightest bit in the other direction and the water just doesn’t satisfy.

Then it happened… FLUSH!  SCREAM!! 

“Sorry mama,” said my sweet little boy.  Oh well, it was time to get out anyways.  My two little munchkins had been happily watching one of their favorite TV shows about a little blue dog, but there was no telling how long their bliss would last.  I stepped out of the shower and wrapped my scalded body in a surfing dinosaur beach towel.

“Mama, I go pee pee,” came the voice of my other sweet little boy.

“Ok, don’t forget to pull your pants down.”  Yes, that was a necessary reminder!

“Oh no! Pee pee get on floor!”  I reassured him from the next room that it was ok.  I’ll clean it up once I’m dressed.  Accidents like this were why we put his tiny little potty on the kitchen floor after all.  No big deal!

Before I even finished toweling off I was informed by my oldest son, we’ll call him the flusher, that there was a disaster that needed my immediate attention in his bedroom.  I guess they were both done with TV time.  That’s actually a good thing, but I secretly wished that they had wanted to watch just one more episode.

I walked into his room to find all but one of his toy containers dumped out on the floor.  Apparently Superman’s cape was missing again!  Everyone knows that Superman is powerless without his cape.  We had to fix this problem stat!  I proceed to go through the house wrapped in my dino towel looking for that tiny piece of red fabric.  I kept a sharp eye on all of the windows to be sure that the curtains were not cracked open.

Click the Pic to View Kristen’s Children’s Books

After ten minutes of searching I remembered to look in the most obvious place – my underwear drawer.  The drawer where I keep my granny panties and fuzzy socks is just about the best place to store anything worth storing, according to my two year old at least.  I opened it up and sure enough, there it was right in plain sight.  I would have found it a long time ago had I been allowed to dress, but that’s neither here nor there.  Disaster averted.

I delivered the miniature cape and dashed back to my room to throw some clothes on my mostly dry body.  I took extra care to choose my favorite fuzzy socks.  I needed to cover my frozen toes.  I was just about to go do something with my hair when my littlest, we’ll call him chugger, reminded me that his cup had been empty for an eternity.  He must have milk!  I felt for the little guy and made my way to the kitchen to get him some more milk; it had been an hour and a half since he had a drink.  That poor little guy must have been parched!

“Give me your cup sweetie,” I said stepping onto the flowery linoleum kitchen floor.  Then it happened… SPLASH!  NO!!! 

“I wa-wee mama,” came the apologetic voice of my sweet little two year old.  Yep, you guessed it, I had forgotten about the mess in the kitchen during the mad search for Superman’s cape and my own selfish desire to cloth my scalded body.  Now I stood in the middle of the kitchen wearing one cozy fuzzy pink sock, and one disgustingly pee soaked soggy sock.

That was my morning.

I quickly realized that I had a choice to make.  I could look at these days as something to “get through”, or I could embrace these days as precious and all too fleeting times.  You see, there was nothing really all that out of the ordinary about this morning, so to wish these types of challenges away would be like wishing my children’s childhood away.  These are the types of things that parents of young children deal with.  When you step back and look at life for what it is, it becomes clear that these crazy situations are actually part of the hilarity of parenting.

I looked down at the nasty sock covering my freshly washed foot, and made a comical face.  I looked straight at my two little boys who were staring at me from the next room, and let out the most ridiculous sounding “Eeeeeeeeeeeewwww!!!”  We all started cracking up.

I choose to embrace these days!

 

Click HERE to view a list of Kristen’s current children’s books available at Amazon.

I Guess It’s About Time I Started A Blog

Let me tell you a little bit about my day.  I got up and checked my most active social media outlets, yes, I did that before even getting out of bed.  Don’t judge.  Then I poured a sippy cup of milk and invited my two little munchkins to eat their breakfast in my bed. I needed a few more minutes of ‘lay down time’ even if there was no hope of eventual sleep. Fortunately, they’re both young enough that the prospect of watching a DVD in mama’s bed was a massive hit. After securing their brand new shiny super hero capes around their little necks, we turned on the Superman DVD. It was heavenly.

Unfortunately, even the best of things must come to an end. The mountain of dirty dishes piled in the kitchen sink was calling my name, as were two overflowing baskets of clean laundry that wanted to be folded. Toys needed to be picked up, plants watered, and children needed to be properly fed. I still had a few more hours of work on the computer ahead of me – planning a book release is not for the faint of heart!

Where did the time go? By now it was an hour past nap time; as my youngest child’s frustrated cries reminded me. Why is it that those wooden train tracks refuse to stay put together when my little guy is tired and cranky? That is one of the great mysteries of the universe that I fear will never be answered to my liking.

I emerged victorious after only a mild power struggle about naptime. After setting my oldest up with his favorite show, I settled next to him on the couch to catch up on my reading list. Yes, I admit, this was the second time today I used the TV. Again I say, don’t judge! What are Saturdays for if not to binge on cartoons? After only two chapters, nap time was over.  Only two chapters read in an hour and fifteen minutes? My oldest was sitting next to me on the couch, remember? Enough said.

After naptime was over the day got busy. We cleaned, did a fun craft project on the kitchen table, cleaned, and then cleaned some more. Then it was time to pick up the toys. I know, those last two sentences sounded pretty redundant. My point exactly.

Once dinner was done and their little tummies were stuffed with fresh baked homemade chocolate chip cookies it was time for bed. I would like to point out that the cookies were from scratch, eh-hem. I think that cancels out at least one of the earlier TV times right? Anyways, off to bed they went, but not before I gave my youngest a haircut. I couldn’t bear to bring him to church one more time with that shaggy hair!

The kids fell asleep almost immediately. Score one for Team Mom! I know you’re wondering what I did next. I’ll tell you. I decided to start a blog because I don’t have enough things to do!

So here it is. I’m going to talk about fun activities, books, and life as a mom-trepreneur. I’m going to celebrate life! I’m going to celebrate being a mom!! I’m going to celebrate kids!!! I’m going to go to bed.  Did I mention that I’m still going on only four hours of sleep?

This is my life and I wouldn’t trade it!

*Just for the record – everything in this post is 100% true to my day. I did not embellishfor the sake of humor. I’m just a regular mom and that’s life.