Daddy has been out of town for a week. Five solid days of crazy without the buffer of a male voice to TAME SAID CRAZY!
I’ve done fairly well, but last night I hit a wall. Tired, I was. Exhausted. I wanted the small children in my midst to go to bed. To sleep. Because honestly I was starting to feel a bit like this:
So we made it home from soccer practice, had the obligatory ice cream snack, then I asked the small children to stop screaming (why with all the screaming?!) and go get ready for bed. Instead, this happened:
Now my first reaction was to get angry because HELLO?! Did you not hear the words that came from my mouth? I said get ready for bed, not put on cheesy music and have an air guitar jam session.
But then I took a breath and simmered down a minute to actually watch them, and a strange thing happened.
I laughed. I laughed because these small children are freaks in the best sense of the word. They’re so weird and I do really love their weirdness.
It became quickly apparent that however ready I was for bed, they were not ready to the same degree. So we put on our shoes, grabbed the dog, and took her on a walk. In the dark. In the rain.
They ran around the block yelling and somersaulting through every. single. yard. (Sorry neighbors.) And we all laughed, which felt good because this solo parenting thing can be a drag.
We made it home and through the bedtime routine quickly and when the house was finally, mercifully quiet I whispered a prayer of thanks before falling into bed. I’m glad I didn’t miss that moment last night.
That crazy moment, with my little freaks.
Happy Friday, friends. May your weekend be filled with just enough crazy to keep you laughing. *wink wink*
What an awesome post. I need to remember that when Steve travels, which is usually for 10-14 days. Night time is the hardest. I can’t wait for them to get in bed and have quiet. But these are the memories we want to have with our kids. I will remember this.
I have to remind myself of that every time Lee leaves town. I become a little bit of a drill sargeant when he’s gone, partly because if I don’t they will run all over me. But the other side of that equation is fun and joy are often thrown out the window in the name of “routine.” I’m working on it. 🙂
Miss you guys!
You know what they say, the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree, or something like that.
True. And their daddy is one giant nut tree. 😉
It’s so hard to make the excruciating turn from an exhausted-and-so-stressed-that-I-can’t-take-another-second moment to a laugh-aloud-grin-into-each-others’-eyes moment. Applauding you that you did so! Laughter is such a stress-busting gift! Yay for you! Yay for your kids! Yay for God’s grace to overwhelmed Mamas!
Deb Weaver
thewordweaver.com