A while ago I got an email from a friend of mine in Montana who wondered if I needed more ammo for my “Gross Mommy Stories”. She sent me this tale of her own personal version of the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day. Seriously, under these conditions how could any mother be expected to hold it all together. Don’t even mention being “Christ-like” I’m sure Christ never had to clean up so many bodily fluids in one day. So here’s Noelle’s family scene:
Gizelle got up fairly early this morning. Mark just let her go out and watch some TV, but didn’t change her diaper. When I got up almost 2 hourrs later, I found her in Addie’s room, and she was starting to take off her jammies. She was taking them off because she had just peed through everything and it must’ve felt quite uncomfortable. I couldn’t believe the puddle of urine on Addie’s carpet! Ugh! (she’s been on an antibiotic for 10 days, so it smells SUPER gross!) So, I got out the vinegar, towels, etc and spent quite a while cleaning carpet.
Next I watch Addie walk right into Gizelle’s cashew’s which are nicely placed on the floor in the middle of footpath (I just vacuumed, and washed that floor last night). Sigh.
Then I took the kids on a long walk/ride/run. Almost 2 hrs later, we are finally on our street, when Ezekiel announces he has to use the restroom. Super, we’re almost home, so I tell him to go on ahead and use the restroom. I dilly-dally and talk to our neighbors, then walk on home. When I get home he’s outside playing, but he suddenly runs inside FAST. A few minutes I go inside and see him in his room putting on different shorts. Didn’t think much of it, because he loves to change into his swimsuit any chance he gets. Then I go into the bathroom and see the pile of wet shorts, underwear and a HUGE puddle in the corner of the floor! I have no clue how he had that much in his bladder!! Of course, I had also just scrubbed the bathrooms and the floors on my hands and knees last night as well. Why didn’t he go straight home and nicely use the restroom! I asked him about said mess and he said “I peed UP and it did that”… hmmm? What does THAT mean? (Please don’t laugh at that last comment, because he doesn’t deserve any mercy yet).
Next I take a quick shower because I want to go to Garden of Readin for a book signing for Janice Thompson. It ends at 2pm, and it’s 12:54 when I get in the shower, so time to CRUISE! I get out, get dressed and then work on getting everyone clothed. I tell everyone to get in the car and get seat belts on. Then notice Gizelle has a yucky, full diaper. So I put her on the toilet and run to get her clothes. I’m ready to go with only a few minutes to spare. When I go out, I see that nobody is in the car with their seatbelts on.
Caleb’s driving the JEEP around and I tell him to stop now please. He continues driving, so I tell him louder to “stop please!” Still ignores me, so I go tell him to go into him room. I give him a swat for both disobedience with not getting in the car and not stopping the JEEP. He’s already been disciplined today because he was being so unkind all day! He stomps off and shoves his hand at the door in a huff, Well, his height is a bit “wrong” for that screen door because when he pushed his hand hard into the door, his hand went right threw the glass!!!! He just broke our front door! The door popped back at him since his hand went threw it and hit him on the face. He got a little bloody nose! So he was really crying hard (mostly scared about all the shattered glass around him) No cuts on his hands or anything.
In the end, I took all 4 kids with me because Mark needed to do some chain-sawing and thought it best to NOT be supervising kids while doing that. With the way our day was going, I thought this was a VERY good idea.
So, we made it to the book signing, then I took the kids to Safeway because we still have some Starbucks cards from Easter. I thought it’d be fun to have a little drink and get a couple sandwiches for the kids to share since nobody really had lunch yet. We get our drinks, then grab some sandwiches from the deli. I tell them they can choose a box of fruit snacks. So as we’re heading that way, Caleb drops his whole hot chocolate!! What a mess! Then Zekers promptly drops his cup into the mess too! As I bend down to get his cup, my keys fly out of my purse into the puddle as well. UGH! So we humbly apologize to the nice lady who comes to clean up the mess, choose some fruit snacks, the go to the check-out. Where AGAIN Ezekiel drops his hot chocolate. He’s always quick to say “I didn’t spill ALL of it though!” (no he has a little more he can save to spill in the car) I told the lady at check-out that I’ll try to hurry up and get us out of the store as fast as possible!
Addie had her own money with her, so I let her buy herself a little treat at Safeway. When we get home, she was in the new room on the new rug. She started jumping up and down on a dance-mat-type of thing, and proceeded to spill all the powder-sugar stuff from her candy on the new rug! It sure smelled sweet in there! So, I got to take out my lovely vacuum and clean up all the glass in the front entry and all Addie’s powdered sugar stuff in the rug.
Just before dinner, I asked Addie to take all the toys off the dinner table. She kept the book she was reading in her hand and tried to lift the huge pile of toys off the table. It landed on her foot. I hate it that I had so little empathy for that when she didn’t decide to put her book down first! She was crying so hard and looking at me like “don’t you CARE!?!?” ummm… I wish you would’ve put down your book first…
This is just the list of spills and drops today- there were so many more whines, disobediences, fights, and frustrating moments that I couldn’t even begin to write down… and thankfully I’ve mostly forgotten all of them already now that everyone’s in bed, clean after baths, and sleeping peacefully and sweetly.
It feels so hard and exhausting trying to keep up and provide a comfortable, clean environment for our kids- not to mention a peaceful and happy home as well. Wow, do I ever need the Lord’s grace and peace daily. He’s so good and patient with me. I never thought I’d have to ask forgiveness so much!
Aren’t we so much like our own children in the house of God the Father? We make messes, break things, disobey, bicker, whine, and basically act like… children. Yet our Father God has infinite patience and forgiveness for our childish ways. We love you Lord and thank you for your Grace.
Photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/rayani/2672808893/”>Rayani Melo</a> / <a href=”http://foter.com”>Foter.com</a> / <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>CC BY-NC-ND</a>
Photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/kubina/185188456/”>Jeff Kubina</a> / <a href=”http://foter.com”>Foter.com</a> / <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/”>CC BY-SA</a>
Photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/carowallis1/303633288/”>Caro Wallis</a> / <a href=”http://foter.com/Food/”>Foter.com</a> / <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>CC BY-NC-ND</a>
Monkeys in My Bag 