As a mother of two little ones I often find myself completing this sentence……A LOT.
“You know your a mother when…” Fill in the blank. I’ve got some whoppers I’ll tell you. I’ll just share a few of my favorites with you so you get the gist.
“You know your a mother when you kiddo spits up, you use your glove to wipe it up, rub it on your pants and be on your way, and then forget to throw the gloves in the laundry.”
“You know your a mother when your picking up after your kids have gone to bed, you pull a toy out from under the couch, along with the cat fur and old cherrios that come with it, and proceed to push that fur and old Cherrios back under the couch since you just vaccuumed……4 days ago.”
“You know your a stay-at-home mother when putting on make up and a pair of high heels makes you happier than you were on your wedding day.”
OR have you every had the conversation with your husband that starts with “Is this what our lives have become??” Call me ungrateful or whatever you may but we have had a few silly moments that have started with that because if you can’t keep it real (or funny) with your husband than who can you keep it real with?? Our moments usually come when one of us are elbow deep in poop and we both look at each other and say……”Really….is this what our life has become??” OR how about when you finally sit your butt down on the couch after cooking dinner, cleaning up, bathing the kids, reading stories and tucking them in and all of a sudden both of them start crying. Yes I turn to him and say “Really…..is this what our life has become?? Then I finish it with, “I”ll see you in about 18 years.”
Where am I going with this post? Eh probably no where besides a good ol’ fashion bitch fest but hey, it’s why I blog, because I can. I wouldn’t change my life for all the money in the world and yes when my husband and I started our family we knew we were going to have to give things up and that our lives were going to forever change, however, we just had no idea how much, you never do until you suddenly there.
Let me take you through a typical Saturday night before we had kids:
Hubby works, comes home, takes a shower, puts on some really nice smelling stuff, gets dressed in 15 minutes and is ready to take me out. I, who have already showered before he got home, puts my make up on, has already gone through 5 outfits, picking the one I feel the best in, slides my coat on and we are out the door and headed to either our favorite restaurant for dinner or out to meet friends for drinks. We stumble in say around 11-1130, I have one more night cap by myself because, even then I still loved that alone time sitting on the couch while I absorbed myself in my favorite drama filled show. Crawl into bed around 1230-1, snuggle up against the love of my life and fall asleep dreaming of our happy life we are headed for. Wake up Sunday morning around 930-10 and say, yah let’s go get some heavy greased breakfast, want to call blah blah blah and see if they want to join us.
Here was my Saturday night last night:
Hubby works, comes home (now normally he stumbles onto the couch because he’s dead tired from working 60 hours this week so I can stay home and raise these beautiful children of mine) skips the shower and tries to have a 15 minute nap before I pull something out to make for dinner, however last night was…….nice. He said he was going to make an effort on not being so tired all of the time. Not sure you can really work on that hunny but I’m going with it. So where was I, yes, he came home with a bottle of champagne, a few $1 toys from Walmart and a smile that I could have just kissed off his face, he turned on the hockey game and I took both kids down to my sisters place to give him that last 20 minutes of the game in peace. My sister feeds my oldest Mac N Cheese and I’m totally OK with it because I’d rather eat a hot meal once my kids are in bed and we can actually taste it and enjoy it. Back upstairs to start and pull out dinner that I’m making for my husband and I while he takes both kids upstairs to play to give me an hour to myself. Ahhhhhhhhh an hour. I whip out my cooking magazines, open my laptop and start planning what’s for dinner this coming week, yes I plan, I plan a lot because I want the food to be in the house, and I want it to be healthier prepared meals as well. I pour myself a glass of wine and and hear the buzzer from the washer go off, time to switch the load. As I’m switching the load I remembered I needed something in the pantry (in the office, yes my food pantry is in my office) as I’m in that closet (where the cat food also is) All 3 cats come whizzing in, “OK OK guys yes I will feed you.” Now the oven preset beep for it being preheated goes off, I arrange the potatoes and put in half of our dinner. I sit back down, crap, forgot my wine, get back up to get it, as I’m about to plop down yet again I can hear my youngest whining and I realize it’s 5:30 one more hour to go buddy before you can have that bottle, better get him a snack, then it dawns on me that my oldest had her Mac N Cheese dinner at 330 so she’s probably going to need a snack too, off to the kitchen, I pull out some veggies (that I thank god had already cut up earlier in the week) place them on a plate with some low fat ranch dressing and bring them up to my husband so the kids can have a snack. (Hey at least it was healthy) I finally plop down on the couch again and start flipping through my magazines. I plan dinners for the week, look at the clock and realize it’s time to start our bedtime routine…..even if it a little early, one because my kids have been up at 5am these days and two because, well I’m ready to have that alone time I still long for at the end of the day.
Nope never did get to sip on that wine.
We get the kiddo’s in bed by 6:45 I finish our mini meatball subs, I’m happy with the fact that I FINALLY made great french fries in the oven without having to fry them, sit down to watch the 8pm lifetime movie, I barley keep my eyes opened to finish this movie, I climb into bed with 10 minutes left, hubby is sewing (yes folks he sews) and I fall asleep before the movie even ends. “Yup this is what our life has become” And I love every second of it!!
It’s just so funny to think back and compare the things that used to make us happy before we had our family and the things that make us happy now. How those screaming, dirty clothed, smelly children have become our everything, how I never even have 5 minutes to my damn self these days, however I wouldn’t change it what so ever. The everyday hectic world around us goes goes goes and we just go go go with it. I often sit back and just watch my children. My husband is on his phone, my oldest is running around but I sneak a quick peak at my 9 month old as he reaches for toys and I see him scoot himself over to get it, we have to remind ourselves to stop and cherish those moments. I just witnessed my son learn how to get a toy….seems so minimal but it makes my day. It makes those long days of changing dirty diapers, counting to ten and wondering if the winter germs are ever going to end give a small little bit of meaning to them. If it’s one thing you can take home from reading this post it’s, who would have thunk that soaking your french fries in water for an hour before baking them would give you a crispy french fry!!
