Reset

This morning didn't start out so well. 

And by that I mean, when my alarm went off at 5:15, I couldn't get Mara to lay down and go back to sleep.  All manner of bouncing, singing, shushing, pacifier offering, nursing, etc. made no difference.  She was fast asleep in my arms, but the slightest movement of any of myself caused her to wake up.  I pushed it as long as I could, hopeful that she could get a little more rest, but had to get moving at the last possible minute in order to keep the ship running on time this morning. 

Before I was able to get into the shower (Mara with me in the bathroom, of course), this one was also awake.  It was his day off of school for teacher conferences, and somehow it never fails that on the days we do not have to be up and out on a schedule, the kids are awake and raring to go.  When we need to be somewhere at a certain time, I need a bulldozer to get them out of bed.  I managed to get my shower and get dressed quickly through Mara's protesting and Joshua's 17 requests to go downstairs to get his breakfast.

Before long, this one appeared...whimpering and whining like she does when she obviously hasn't slept long enough.  She wouldn't hear of going back to bed, so I braced myself for the next 25 minutes that it usually takes for her to wake up the whole way and get her attitude adjusted, during which she grumps around, barks at her brother and breaks every rule that she knows darned well to be enforceable in our house.  While I was in the middle of doing my makeup (and please note that I was holding Mara.....yep, it was as difficult as you're imagining), Lauren declared that she had peed on the bathroom floor.  This child hasn't had a potty accident in close to a year...honestly.  What in the world was going on here other than the universe just lining up to give me a good swift kick in the rear this morning?  I put Mara down, grabbed the Clorox and a roll of paper towels and got to work cleaning up.  I may or may not have been grumbling under my breath about how I DID NOT have time for this this morning.  Mara was down at this point and managed to find the one spot that I missed cleaning.  Her pajamas were now soaked and needed immediate changing.

I was running dangerously out of time.  And I was definitely out of patience.

I changed Mara and finished up the bathroom floor.  While I was doing that, this is what Mara did to the kitchen.  The girl loves placemats.  And really anything that she can get into at this point.

By the grace of God, I managed to get Mara fed so that Jason and I could get out the door, only a few minutes late.

On the way to the school, I was feeling horribly guilty for my short fuse this morning.  There are just some days that I wake up with less patience than others, and apparently this wasn't my star Mama performance.  If the truth be told, I just wanted to be left alone for one minute-- to get done what I needed to get done and get moving with the day.  But there were three little ones who really weren't doing anything wrong, but were making me absolutely on the edge.  I wasn't proud of myself, and I was praying for a turn around to the day.  I certainly didn't want to feel this way all day long.

And then...it was like the reset button had been pressed.

Mrs. Case shared with us how much she adores Joshua.  She said that he is bright and creative, and that she loves his sense of humor.  We were relieved to find out that he is using his sense of humor in appropriate ways and she said he has no problems transitioning from activities that are fun (like playtime or more physically active tasks) to sitting quietly and following directions.  She is impressed with his reading skills and shared his school work...the lowest grade I saw was a 95.  She showed us his journal writing and some of his kid writing, as well as gave us some ideas on how to keep working with him at home on the special sounds in words that are a little harder to grasp than the hard sounds that letters make.  But she said he is doing wonderfully and she had no areas of concern for him at all.  We were beaming when we left there, beyond proud of him for the way he is behaving and learning in school.

Just what I had ordered, Lord.....a reset button for my patience, and a reminder that...despite the fact that the kids work together to push me right over the edge of the cliff some days, we have been blessed with some terrific kids.  Tomorrow will be a better day...it always is.