Now, the mere thought of stopping at a coffee shop to pick up one of my pre-marital, pre-motherhood tastes of luxury in a cup sends me walking right to the microwave to heat up some leftover coffee from the day before. Good Lord, I could by two school lunches for the price of one Grande Skinny Latte with light whip.
Laundry, aaahhhhh my favorite past time. NOT!!! I've often said "When I am rich and famous I don't want someone to come clean my house, I just want someone to come and do the laundry for me...oh and clean the toilets." Back in my pre-motherhood days laundry was something I did once a week. It would take me all of about 2 hours on a Saturday start to finish and then I didn't have to touch it or think about it again for another week. Well, unless of course that shirt I looked really good in was dirty and we're going out Thursday night. And then I would actually get a whole washer full of water to wash that one shirt. As I type this I am staring at what I fondly refer to as "laundry mountain". How is it that three little people with little clothes can create such a large mountain that even my dogs find it as inside entertainment and exercise to jump over it. Oh and it NEVER GOES AWAY. There is never a finish line to celebrate your success in chipping away at that mountain and getting it completely done! Once you finish that last load and you are just about ready to break open the bottle of wine and relax, little peanut walks in the room with her big, beautiful smile, snuggles up to hug you, and tells you that while cleaning her room as you asked, she found some clothes in the toy box. You look over thinking "well it can't be that bad, I will save it for a full load" Nope, you stare at the mountain that has been resurrected and wonder where were the toys in the toy box if this is what she pulled out.
People are so wonderful and kind when you have three kids and offer you hand-me-downs. I LOVE THAT, don't get me wrong. As a parent of three kids, hand-me-downs are a godsend to the pocket book. They also mean I don't have to do the one thing I truly hate in this world, shopping. Yes, I know I'm weird. What woman doesn't like to shop? This gal right here! Here's the trouble with hand-me-downs, they increase laundry mountain. See I don't like to hand-me-down clothes to someone else unless they have been once again freshly washed. Even if I pulled them out of the dresser drawer, I wash them again before I pass them along. Come on, all you Moms know exactly why. It's a myth that everything in your child's dresser is actually clean. You send them to clean their rooms and dirty clothes end up in the most intriguing of places, the most popular choice however is back in the dresser. (if you think of it from a kid's point of view it does make perfect sense. I got it from there so I will return it to there) Back to hand-me-downs, love them but they increase laundry mountain.
When I was single dinner meant sometimes a sandwich. If that's what mood I was in then that's what I had. In all honesty, oft times it was a stop at Subway or digging into the freezer and grabbing a bag of Pizza Rolls. Why? Because I could and for the record I was also young back then so I could simply skip a meal and loose 5 pounds. Yeah....none of that happens anymore. Not the Subway, because feeding a family of five is not necessarily cheap at Subway, not the Pizza Rolls because there's that whole responsibility deal where you have to feed your kids a well balanced and healthy meal, and my metabolism is not what it once was so I can not and should not be eating them either. I have to actually cook, which normally I don't mind but I have to cook. Kids grow. As they grow you find that their sweet little bodies are nothing but an apparently empty cistern. If you are not familiar with a cistern, my Grandparents had one on their farm for drinking water. I would open the lid to the cistern and you would swear when you looked down in there that there was next to nothing left for cold drinking water. I'd lower the bucket and realize that yes there was but it sure didn't seem like it. Kids are cisterns. Some days you are running in so many directions you have to actually stop, do a mental check list, and remember "yes, I fed the children lunch today". You feed them, like any mom does, three square meals a day and generally two snacks in between yet they are still hungry. I know there has got to be food in them, I'm sure of it because I just finished cleaning up the lunch dishes that I fed them on, yet they come to you "Mommy, I'm hungry". Providing food for these kids is like my laundry mountain, once you're done...you're not.
Single people will sit and look at us married mothers and question, "I just don't get why you can't get away and do lunch with us. Just find a sitter for the afternoon." They clearly do not get it and secretly you say to yourself "ohhhh I can't wait till you have kids". Single people are also oft times full of advise. You can share with them your desire to get healthier, work out, and loose weight. They always have the simple fix, have you noticed that? "You have to take time for you. Get a membership and go to a gym. Do it for yourself and make your family understand that you need time for you." Ohhhhh, I can't wait till you have kids. Taking time for me is being able to pee without an audience, this includes our furry kids as well who I believe have learned from my kids that when Mommy goes into the bathroom you must follow her and try to sit on her lap. Taking time for me is a phone call to my mother filling her with all the reasons I admire her and questioning her on how did she ever get it all done. Taking time for me is reading a book...yeah, who am I kidding. If I sit down to read a book I will most assuredly fall asleep before page 2.
So, it's Monday and this IS just another day in paradise. I have my laundry mountain to tackle, my living room is in utter chaos taking down all the Christmas decorations I put up to make my home a literal North Pole transported, my dogs desperately need a bath but they were knocked down a notch on the list yesterday since the kids needed baths also and if I'm not mistaken CPS doesn't come to your house for not washing your dog but they just might if you don't bathe your kids, I have to plan something nutritious for my family for dinner, AND I actually do have a job and need to work too. With all that to do, I find myself looking at the clock and counting down the minutes until I get to go pick up my kids from school and see their sweet faces. Counting down the minutes until my husband comes home and our little family is reunited after a day of work and school so we can be all together this evening. This is my crazy, chaotic, less than perfect, but more than any one imperfect woman deserves. Paradise is not like I imagined in my single days with palm trees, white sandy beaches, a bathing suit (two pieces cause I could), and a delicious margarita in hand. Paradise is three sweet babies ready with open arms to give me the biggest hugs in the world because they love me that much. It's all five of us sitting on the couch amongst our chaos laughing hysterically watching The Big Bang Theory. It's two dogs that are literally spoiled rotten and know they've got a pretty good life and they show it with their big doggy kisses and snuggles. It's knowing that even though my single life was pretty dayum amazing, it doesn't and never will hold a candle to what I have right now, every day, all day, for the rest of my life.
Ahhhhh, my paradise is perfect!
Loved every word.
ReplyDelete