Mornings.

me with the school girl

UGH. Who hates getting everybody dressed and ready and out of the house in the morning?

Oh good, I'm not alone.

Lately our mornings have devolved into about 20 minutes of nagging, shouting, dragging, pushing, and rushing. It's a frantic, yucky mess. Today after putting a tearful Daniel in the car, and strapping in a yelling Lily and then sliding a shaking, severely under-caffeinated me in the driver's seat, I realized, this. has. got. to. change.

Part of it is that we need to be out of the house by 7:15 or I'll be late to work. And that is EARLY in the morning. Part of it is that Lily has been waking up earlier and wanting to snuggle in bed with me, which makes me later to get up and ready.  Part of it is that Daniel has been waking up later, sometimes as late as 7:00. Yes, 15 minutes before we need to be out of the door.  So, our timing is all messed up. Ideally, Andrew and I would love to wake up early, have a nice quiet breakfast, then deal with the kids. Ideally the children would wake up already dressed and ready to go too... Ideal is not real. But I don't need to be a frantic shouting mess every morning.  I need to get a grip.

Some mornings lately have been so crazy that I've gotten to work without any makeup, jewelry or even a watch on. Some mornings both kids are crying in the car.  Most mornings only one of us has actually eaten breakfast.  A couple of mornings I've forgotten an important item (like my coffee cup!).  And one stellar morning, I locked us all out.

I hate being late to work. I also hate leaving a messy house. I need to work on that. I need to start telling myself: It's okay that there are dishes in the sink. It's okay that there are toys on the floor.  It's okay that the laundry isn't folded. It's okay that the beds aren't all made.

What really isn't okay is having stressed out, sad children in the morning. What isn't okay is feeling like I need something strong in that coffee cup at 7:15 in the morning.

So I here I am, committing to staying focused on having happier, less stressful mornings. Here is to not losing my cool because Daniel didn't pick his pajamas off the floor. Here is to leaving dirty dishes in the sink, and keeping smiles on our faces.

How do you do mornings?

Gross me out!

Tonight I had to retrieve Daniel's new "bey blade" (spinning top thing that all children are obsessed with at the moment) from underneath the refrigerator.  As I lay on the floor with a ruler trying to dig it out from the dust bunnies, old roach traps and assorted crumbs that are also stuck under there (I swear my house is clean!), I thought, "Is this the most disgusting thing I have done as a mom so far?"...

Those writing teachers were correct, inspiration can come from anywhere!

Top Five Most Disgusting Things I've Done As A Mom So Far

5. Fished out a bey blade from under our fridge.

4. Scooped out poop from a bath while restraining two hysterical, soaking wet children. 

3. Cleaned up a wet toddler while also soaked in pee. 

2. Cleaned the car seat. Cleaned under the car seat. Shudder.

1. Collected, put into vials, and labeled giardia-laced stool samples from both children. (International adoptive families, can I get an amen!)

Okay, actually that's not all so bad. Except for the stool samples. That was bad. I really did think I was doing to die, and then I didn't. (But I never collected the other FIVE samples the specialist wanted. The kids are fine, totally fine. I just know it. If the doctor wants more stool samples to make sure, she can come over and collect them!)

Okay- top me! I know you moms of teens can do it. ;)

Free

You remember those kids working on fishing boats in Ghana? Remember those villagers so desperate to have a productive livelihood that they enslaved children?

24 of the children are free. One village is on its way to productivity without slavery.

What struck me most reading this was how many of the fishermen had been slaves themselves. How many of them had been taken from their families, never went to school and never knew a day of rest... and how these same former slaves turned captors gave the children gifts of money and clothes as they left for freedom.  The arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice.

Read more about it here.