You ever have one of those days where you feel utterly and completely defeated? Staring the mounds of laundry needing to be folded, piles of dishes to be washed, dirty floors needing to be mopped, toys everywhere, kids screaming, fighting, and crying in every room…the word “Overwhelmed” just doesn’t quite grasp the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach as you survey the scenes around you. Yep, that was me yesterday. I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t feel overwhelmed, but yesterday I felt like my ability to “conquer the world” had floated off right along with my sanity. I still firmly believe we deserve our own reality show, heck, I think Landon deserves one just for himself! He’s a one man circus and has the ability to bring any grown man or woman to tears in matter of 30 minutes. I love him, he is the sweetest little boy and so loving, but despite the overflow of wet kisses and those cute chubby cheeks, he is, in a word, a handful to put it gently. How on earth I ended up with two overly strong-willed kids is beyond me. God is teaching me something, and for sure patience is part of that something!
This is the way my day panned out yesterday… We only had one extra daycare kiddo so I decided I would take the kids out, get the McDonalds and head to Kidscove, should be a smooth day right? NOT. Despite the fact that my daycare kiddo spent most of the morning screaming bloody murder whenever her feet touched the ground, I couldn’t find my keys ANYWHERE, searched the house high and low and I still have no clue where they are. So my sweet husband drives home for his lunch break and brings me his keys. However, the entire time I’m looking for the keys, I have two screaming babies, two big kids repeatedly asking me “can we go now?!” and a terror of a toddler who has managed to knock down the baby gate, remove the lid of a sippy cup and pour it all over my hallway floor, grab a spoon from the dish on the stove that is full of spaghetti sauce ( which in turn ended up all over his WHITE shirt, hands, the floor, and several other places), pulled the step ladder over to the sink ( he knows how to open it and set it up, yes he’s smart one!) and grab a knife out of the sink…this is the scene I walk in on…of which I quickly surveyed the rest of the damage. Awesome… So I clean up the messes, change his shirt and load the kids up in the car. After picking up McDonalds ( and you better believe a Starbucks), we head off to Kidscove. Liberty has changed their parking, so where am I forced to park? Out in tim-buck-too with 5 kids, two of which cannot walk. So here I am, slapping Hayden into my moby wrap ( when she decides to wake up screaming because lo and behold, her impeccable timing to be hungry lol) Put Zoey in the stroller, slide on Landons shoes, put Kyleigh in charge of pushing Zoey, grab Landons hand and off we go across the parking lot. This was the easy part of the day believe it or not. We make it in there, I feed Hayden, and all is well for the 45 minutes we are in KidsCove. I even met a new friend, woo hoo! ;) However, come time to load everyone up and head out, Kyleigh decides to run out the door ahead of me. We all soon follow only to discover, Kyleigh is no where to be seen. I ask D.J. where she went, he says “I don’t know?” Frantically I ask several more times until he points his finger towards the entrance and says she went “that way”…of which a Funeral was letting out right where his little finger was pointing. Swarm of people, 4 kids under 3, and not enough hands. Landon, refusing to walk without my hand, lays down on the ground SCREAMING bloody murder because he isn’t getting his way ( yeah, he’s a peach ;) ). So I stand there, like a deer in headlights, trying to figure out how the heck I’m going to hold his hand, push a stroller, and find my kid. My level of anxiety is quickly escalating as time goes by and I still haven’t seen my daughter. As I finally put DJ in charge of the stroller ( its like watching a 5 year old drive a car, not the best person for the job but you do what you have to do LOL), grab landons hand and move towards the entrance, I see Kyleigh coming out of the bathroom…which was RIGHT by KidsCove… I look at my son with a look of “are you kidding me?” Shes in tears, I lay into her for leaving without telling me where she was going, and we soon calm down and head to Daddy’s office to say goodbye…which ended up being a whole mess of its own, but he was able to help me get the kids to the car, so that was a blessing! Anyways, we make it home and I experience the safety and freedom of naptime, oh thank you Lord for naptime! I couldn’t even tell you what I did during that two hours, I think I stared blankly at the computer screen… too tired to move, or maybe too afraid…lol 4:00 rolls around, Zoey gets picked up, and we are down to my four monkeys…who are still sleeping. So I decide to get down in the basement and do my Jillian workout, perfect solution to stress! 10 minutes into it, Hayden starts screaming…awesome. I finished my workout and went on to feed my chunker of a baby. J By 5:00 all the kids were up… and we had a nice smooth hour and a half. I cooked the food on the grill, the kids played in the yard, Hayden slept…heavenly. Then the boys, being boys, decide to play in a large area of DIRT…all dirt…and they are covered head to toe just as I finished cooking dinner. Gotta love it ;) I wipe them down and set them all up at the table, of which Daddy has arrived, yay! We all finish, except D.J. ( this is the norm). Dave goes down to the basement to work out, and I once again answer the hunger cry of my daughter. While im feeding Hayden and sitting at the computer, the kids are hoarsing around at the table and have moved Landons highchair right by the counter…didn’t think anything of it until I walk in and see he is eating something. His food had been gone so im trying to figure out what he has, and I look over and he had taken a huge piece of chicken from the food I had cooked for daves lunches and was chowing down on it. Initially irritated, I couldn’t help but laugh. So I take him out of his highchair and throw him in the tub (not literally, though I thought about it lol). Landons in the tub, D.J’s eating ( or staring at his plate) and the girls are in the living room. In the matter of 25 minutes, D.J. spilled a cup of juice all over the table, floor and chair…Landon has gotten out of the tub at least 5 times of which I had to chase him down the hall each time, I walk in the final time to find he had taken the bottles of shampoo that I had REMOVED from the tub because of him, and poured every ounce of them into the bathwater….(im sure he was loving the bubbles he created). Hayden will not settle, she is screaming the entire time all of this is going on…Kyleigh is nagging me for about a hundred things, “can we do preschool? Will you do puzzles with me? Can you go outside and push me on the swing? Can I hold baby Hayden?” etc. etc. etc…. Meanwhile, I walk into the kitchen and D.J. is standing over the table with half his arm in a cup of juice…his plate still not touched. I start to tear up at this point, and the feeling of defeat and exhaustion have set it. Dave come up from the basement, I stare at him, tear streaked and he, being the amazing hubby that he is, takes over. Finishes their baths and gets them dressed for me. I finally get the kitchen cleaned up, calm down and go to tuck all the monsters in bed. God, being wonderfully merciful, lets that part of the day go smoothly (1 Corinthinas 10:13, We will not be tempted beyond what we can bear! thank you, thank you Lord LOL) while tucking D.J. in bed, he starts to tell me that I need to go get the paddle because Jason ( his imaginary friend) has hit everyone in the house LOL I sit and watch as my adorable little boy tells me a lengthy description of how Jason needs a spanking, but I should actually use my hand because the paddle and belt would hurt him, but I need to spank him now because he even hit baby Hayden ( I love this kids imagination J ). Meanwhile Landon is bouncing around in his crib while we talk, and we are soon joined by Kyleigh. Prayers are set, kisses and hugs are exchanged, and the lights go out. Dave and I fall into bed, absolutely exhausted, watch an episode of “Pawn Stars” and immediately fall asleep. Needless to say, I woke up this morning craving my coffee more than normal, an stuck my nose right into my Bible…because today I have 3 extra kiddos. I will be caring for 7 kids under the age of four, nursing a baby, and teaching pre-school. If I felt overwhelmed yesterday, today is going to be AWESOME. LOL But I was reminded this morning not only that God will not give us more than we can bear, but that we are to do everything for the Glory of God ( 1 Corinthians 10:31). And with that in my mind, and a very thankful heart for the incredible life God has blessed me with ( even with all of its craziness and stress), I start the day off ready to be completely “defeated” yet again… Have a blessed day everyone, God is good and has an AMAZING sense of humor!!! J
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