This morning, I got up extra early to have some quiet time (which hasn't happened in a LONG time). I made a cup of coffee and sat down to enjoy some ME time. As I soon as I sat down, Michael brought me Joel. He was hungry. Then Clark woke up and was hungry. After making oatmeal (our everyday staple), I ran upstairs to deliver to my husband his breakfast and spilled his milk on the carpet. Then when I came back down, Clark has flung his oatmeal all over the kitchen and living room. Joel was screaming his head off. So I started taking deep breaths and trying to keep myself focused. (yes my hormones are raging today too).
So I calmly had Clark "clean up" his mess. Then I looked up and saw it. My house was in utter disarray. (I've got the pictures to prove it.) Okay, here's where the fairy god toad comes in. Usually when I find myself in this unhappy place, I take a few breaths and do something to make myself laugh. Lately, I have been telling fairy tales about a beautiful princess mommy and her fairy god toad out loud. The princess finds herself always in a messy house because of her two boys. She consults a fairy god toad about her problems, and he always fixes it by taking the boys away. She loves her clean house, but soon misses her boys. The princess mommy always learns a lesson that it's better to have a messy house with her precious boys than a clean quiet house without her darling children.
Well I was at the point that I needed to start telling my story out loud, when Clark did a number in his pants. NUMBER 2 that is. Okay, I'll clean up him and then tell my fairy tale later. So we go to the bathroom, and I do what most sane people WOULDN'T. I try to savage his underwear. On my knees before the toliet with my hands in the brown toliet water trying to scrub off the most disgusting, stinky poop I've ever seen, my sweet two year old, four month old son bends down to my ear and says.....
GOOD JOB, MOMMY! GOOD JOB!!!!
I started laughing and crying. It was the most beautiful, funniest thing I'd ever heard. I finished up the clean up and found myself not needing my fairy god toad after all.
My cup of coffee is over half full and cold, but I sit in awe at how AWESOME our GOD is and how precious every day is no matter the craziness.
Here's my sweet angel with the oatmeal juice still on his shirt.
What a great story... you are right, I don't think I would have tried to save the underwear :) Hang in there. Believe me, we all have days like these. And here I was grumbling because I'd been spit up on 3 times in 1 hour. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteJenna .. I love you girl! You are such and encouragement and an inspiration! I know I would not have kept my composure.
ReplyDeleteOh honey. It will get better. And I would love to see you write that children's book someday. Seriously it would be awesome for moms to read to their children a story about how in the end it is more wonderful to have a messy house and still have the little mess-makers with them. Write it. I'm not kidding. And as for it getting better, it will. You are already letting some things go, and in my opinion, that is better. Homes need to feel lived in by our children, not as if they can't play with their things. I think my kids feel that way right now on days when our house gets shown to a prospective buyer. And they will change too. My boys, now 5 and 3, can both make their beds, take laundry to the laundry room, help take out trash, etc. My one year old daughter likes to "help" put spoons in the dishwasher, which means I have to go find them in other sections of the house after she's done, but I know she will eventually get the concept! I think Clark can handle a daily routine of doing two chores each day. Same time of day every day. For Creed last year one of his jobs was just "going potty" in the morning. Anything can be a chore and make them feel like they are accomplishing a job. Also time to start cleaning up each thing before getting out something new if you aren't already doing that. I keep half of our toys up high in see-through storage so they can't get it out. They have to ask, and I say clean everything else first. And it works. Want to go outside? Clean the toys inside first. Also, as another tip, when my boys were young, I used to play with them for 30 minutes to an hour to fill their love banks, then I could get an hour or two of cleaning done with a few interruptions for help with a toy or for potty times. And I know plenty of mom's who put the baby in the pack-in-play for playtime while they do dishes or something...just 30 minutes or less. (And I used to save the pooped on underwear too, and then Creed potty trained for such a long time that I started throwing away the poopy underwear. Too much poop to care at that point.) I miss you and have thought about you a lot!! Thanks for blogging! Fun to see your life and how full it is.
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