Don’t Mind Me

I am just going to be curled up in the fetal position in the corner of my bed, singing my happy song and traveling to a place of complete serenity where the word “Mommy” doesn’t exist.  Seriously, it is totally normal for a 30 year old mother of three (or any number really) to do this at least once a month.  Can I get an Amen??  It’s possible that this is required once a week in some cases.  There doesn’t have to be a particular trigger,  any ol’ thing will do.  You spend hours hand washing dishes and your husband walks in with all the dishes he has been storing for you in his truck…yep…let’s go curl up.  You spend 20 minutes vacuuming the whole house because you have serious sensory issues to crumbs under foot, and your one year old crumbles tortilla chips right in front of your face as if to mock you….what’s my happy song again??  You promised your five year old a pack of gummies as soon as she helped straighten up the house, and she asks every time she puts up one item if she can have the gummies yet….for the love of all things holy.  Yeah….I will be in my happy place until further notice.  It’s just been that kind of day for this girl.

I just pulled a 9 to 5’er just cleaning my house.  My… 1000… square… foot… house.  Come on!  That’s like 125 sq ft per hour, and if you think I get lunch breaks… you’re out of your mind.  I do however, get breaks to change diapers, fill cuppies, kiss boo-boos… oh and feed the animals.  Here is a picture of my awesome living room floor.  Enjoy it while you can.  It will only be like this for another hour.  After that my dear, sweet Logan wakes up and my little wrecking ball has a job to do.  He loves his job by the way.  Thankfully I can bribe the girls with snacks and an afternoon movie to keep the house from falling apart long enough for me to take a picture.  Most days I feel like I have worked my behind off, but to look around you really couldn’t find any evidence of such work.  My “behind” is definitely not showing any results.  Sometimes I just sit in aww of the women of the past and wonder how in the world they did it.  They made three meals a day from scratch.  Canned every single piece of food they could get their hands on for winter and most days had to go out and kill their own chicken for dinner that night. I mean seriously, I can barley get it together with my frozen chicken and vegetables.  The 10lbs of cucumbers I picked the other day that should have been canned….yeah….just fed them to my chickens.  My foremothers (totally just made that word up) would be seriously ashamed.  But the chickens were ecstatic, that’s what really matters.  Silver lining people.

I have a friend who encourages me to fight the good fight and keep persevering.  The girl’s got four kids…she been there.  She tells me quite often that I am in the trenches of motherhood right now.  When the kids are little and just suck the ever loving…eh um….I mean require your attention, your love and yes, even your discipline.  Each day is a new day with these blessings that try my patience to no end sometimes, but then there are moments when your eldest wants to read you a book, or the five year old tries to write you a poem, or the baby for no reason at all walks over and gives you hug.  Treasure those moments.  They pass so quickly.  I encourage all the moms out there in the trenches, you are not alone.   The dishes will be there, the laundry will forever be the thorn in your side and the floor will always have crumbs to sweep.  Your babes however, will not always be babes.  Thank you to my mother in-law for putting that into perspective today.

One final note.  It’s okay to go to your happy place every once in while.  Your children will be the better for it.  Happy Mama= Happy Life.  On that note, I am going to go to my happy place now which consists of “candy coffee” as my husband calls it and the last of the homemade ice cream.  If I am lucky the kids won’t find me.