Choose Your Moment

SO, for my first installment of reality I have a doosie :-)

It all started a couple of weeks before my Dad was supposed to fly in and stay with us for a few days and Michael found out that his oral surgery to remove his wisdom teeth was scheduled for that same day…  I figured that since his appointment was at 7am and my dad wasn’t to arrive until 2pm everything would be OK and I told him I didn’t think he needed to reschedule.

Fast forward a couple weeks and we are driving through the McDonald’s drive through for breakfast on our way to the surgery center at 6:30am with all 3 kids in the car.  I had the iPod’s, iPad, coloring books, toys and food.  I was prepared for the 1-2 hours with 3 kids in the waiting room.  When we got there the receptionist kindly changed the TV channel to cartoons just as Michael was called back to begin the procedure.  Lauren still wouldn’t eat any more of her breakfast.  She was tired and wanted to sit on my lap (not a big deal except that Noah wasn’t sitting up by himself yet and I didn’t want to lay him on the floor of the waiting room).  So there I sat, for quite a long time, holding Noah in one arm and managing Lauren squirming on my other side.  They finally called me back to see Michael.  Ethan wanted to keep watching TV so I took Noah and Lauren back with me.

We got back to the room where Michael was and Noah decided he was hungry.  As soon as I got Noah “hooked up” the nurse came back in and started giving me instructions.  After a few minutes the nurse needed to leave and I was left in the room, nursing, Lauren halfway laying on me and Michael still extremely loopy from the anesthesia.  I looked up at Lauren because she started to say something, only to see her clamping her hands over her mouth and then letting go when she couldn’t hold it in…  It was a thothoughtful gesture for a 2 year old but completely unsuccessful.  In addition to her having puke all over her shirt, pants and shoes, she somehow was able to get it in her hair, MY hair, my shirt, my pants Noah’s hair and his outfit…  The nurse had specifically said that Michael could not be left alone yet, but there wasn’t a sink or towels in the room…  I looked out in to the hallway and didn’t see anybody.  I looked up to see Michael trying to get up from his chair and I remember saying very sternly “NO! Sit back down.”  He was trying to get up and help but all I could think of was him falling over and then having a whole other mess to figure out.  So we sat there for what seemed like 30 minutes (although it probably was only 5-10) while Michael who was still loopy kept on telling me he was sorry he couldn’t help.  When the nurse got back I took the kids and I to the bathroom to try and clean up a bit while that sweet nurse cleaned up the mess on the floor of the room.  We returned, got the prescriptions and the rest of the instructions, were all ready to go but when she checked the bleeding she decided we needed to stay for a bit longer.  We ended up being there for another 45 minutes until the bleeding stopped.  From there we went to the Pharmacy to pick up the prescriptions only to find out that it would be a 45-60 minute wait.  Instead of waiting in the parking lot I decided that it would be a good opportunity to pick up a couple things from the grocery store.  It struck me as odd as I was walking through Kroger that I had even had the impulse since I had puke in my hair (and everywhere else for that matter) but I guess the practical side of me won and I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to “run in” and grab a couple things without 3 kids in toe :-)

Fast forward a bit, I got done in the grocery store, we picked up the prescriptions, we got home, got Michael settled in the recliner, gave Noah a quick bath, set up Ethan with a movie and I took Lauren in to the shower with me.  We both had to shampoo our hair twice to get all of the smell out (YUCK!).  We get out of the shower, get dressed, we are standing in the living room and the phone rings, my Dad’s flight is delayed…  Ok, not a problem, turn around to Lauren getting sick all over again :-(.  Rinse and repeat…  Ok, lets do a bath this time…  Noah is crying now, he is hungry, make that a quick bath…

This photo was taken after her second bath.  She slept snuggled up with daddy in the recliner for 2 hours and then woke up with the energy of a 2 year old like nothing ever happened.  This was the sweet moment, the calm moment, the clean moment, the moment I WANT to remember.  This is the moment that I posted on Facebook.  Yes I mentioned that Michael had his wisdom teeth out and that she had been sick but I don’t think the “reality” of the day was communicated.

The moral of the story?  I have no idea, but I have a strong feeling that this type of thing happens to more than just me…  You are not alone :-)

I get “super mom” comments ALL the time.  Well meaning women who praise me for all the things I do.  Don’t get me wrong, I am BUSY!  I have been blessed with the ability to be a stay at home mom and I have 3 awesome kids that keep me on my toes (especially the middle one! Yikes!!!) and have a lot of balls in the air ALL THE TIME!  The thing is, my strengths lie in some pretty easy to see areas.  I have a knack for anything crafty and domestic.  I also love to organize…  Ok, ok…  Enough already, this post is really not about me at all.

I was browsing Facebook a while back and stumbled across this quote:

Pretty amazing isn’t it…

You see, I am not in the habit of posting pictures of my house when it looks like a bomb went off, or videos of my children on their “challenging” days…  I love my kids but some days they make me CRAZY!!!  In fact, I would be very comfortable saying that there isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t have at least a few minutes of crazy.  It is just a part of my life, my crazy, beautiful, busy life.  In all of the craziness I decided a while back that I was going to be intentional about focusing on the sweet and beautiful moments that make me fall in love with being a mom over and over again.  As that “intentionality” has played out on Facebook over the past few years, I started to realize that what I portray online isn’t painting an accurate or “real” picture of my life…

So here is the deal.  My plan for this is to write about the “behind the scenes” footage.  The whining, the business, the chaos, the crazy, you will hear about it all.  You will also see the “Choose Your Moment” image.  The sweetness, the relationships, the quiet moments, the beauty that I want to remember for always.  I don’t know if any of this made any sense, but the next post should clarify anything that is fuzzy.  It is time to pull the curtain of Facebook away…