Holy Nuggets Batman, Horrible Day and Passing Down Skills

Boy, I worry about our food bill when the boys become teenagers!! The other night we had a fix it yourself night for dinner because I never got around to cooking anything. Daniel, of course, had nuggets. Let me rephrase that he had LOTS of nuggets as you can see. He actually ate all of them except for the two I made him give to Noah. Where does the little guy put it all--a hollow leg?! Geez!!We took advantage of the 7/11 Free Slurpee day. I took the kids down to 7-11 after Kids in the Park and everyone got to get their own free Slurpee. Of course Matthew and Josh didn't wait for me to help them so they got "Slurped". They turned the machine on too fast and sprayed Slurpee everywhere. Oh well. After we got our Slurpees I made them eat them all outside the store because they were all pretty sticky and I didn't want it spilled in the car. They didn't mind. I let Noah have a taste of mine and after that he wouldn't let me take the straw out of his mouth. He ended up eating the majority of mine--the little stinker!!Aaron had a super important meeting at work Tuesday morning he had to play a big part in. To get ready for it he got out his Grandpa Claude's shoe shine kit to shine his shoes with. Just like his grandpa taught his dad and his dad taught him, Aaron passed down the skills and taught our kids how to shine shoes and they all thought it was pretty fascinating. After they were done and had washed their hands, Daniel came to show me how shiny and polished his hands were after using the shoe polish--what a goofball! Aaron even let the kids practice--Sarah included.




Tuesday proved to be a rough day in my adventure of momdom. It started out at 3 am when Noah decided he was done sleeping. He gave me an ultimatum which was, "Either hold me or I SCREAM!!" He needed to be entertained until he finally fell back asleep again at 6 am. Unfortunately, that's when the other kids start coming alive. (To prove my point--lately Josh and Daniel have decided that 5:30 am is an excellent time for a shower every morning.) Anyway that meant there was no more rest for the weary (me). Tuesday morning for Kids in the Park they were having a kid talent show that any Kid in the Park kid could participate in. They also sent home a flyer saying parents were welcome, too, if they wanted to come. In the past years none of the kids have cared if I was there or not so I never went. That all changed this year when Josh BEGGED and pleaded with me to come to watch. Unfortunately, Josh doesn't quite understand that a talent show is a place where you can SHOWCASE your perfected talent not a place to attempt something you have never done before or sing a song you really don't know the words to. Josh had decided to sing the song Praise to the Man karaoke style and maybe do a dance along while he was singing his song. When he first told me I thought he was joking, but he wasn't. I tried to get him to change his mind, but he absolutely wouldn't. I just had to smile and nod and hope things went ok. Josh had also talked Daniel into singing Book of Mormon Stories and possibly do a dance along with that, too. Again...another smile and nod because what else could I do? They had already made up their minds. Matthew said he wasn't going to do anything for the talent show. Anyway even though I was exhausted and bleary eyed from Noah's early morning ultimatum, I got the kids all up breakfasted, medicated and dressed (no small fete). I then had to get myself showered and dressed, too. I then had to pack the diaper bag and make sure we had Josh and Daniel's primary CD with the two songs they had chosen to perform. I must admit we were 20 minutes late, but better late than never, right?! When we got to the park the three boys ran off while I was trying to put Noah into the stroller and make sure Sarah didn't wander away. When we got to the pavilion they were just starting the talent show. About this time Josh changed his mind and told me he wanted to play the piano instead of sing. He wanted me to run all the way home and get his sheet music so he could play. It was all I could do just to get to the park and I didn't want to go all the way back home so I told him no. He was not very happy with me, but that's the way it goes. About this time as well Matthew decided he wanted to participate in the talent show. He came over to me and was really angry at me because I didn't bring his CDs with me. Well if I knew he wanted to do something I would have brought the CDs!! Anyway, he wanted me to go back home so he could get his CDs so he could sing. I tried to talk him into the playing the piano since he has a few numbers memorized, but he had already made his mind up that he wanted to SING and that was that. He kept pulling me towards the car and hitting me when I wouldn't go. During this time as well Noah and Sarah had started screaming--who knows why. Maybe they were celebrating the new holiday Everyone Scream at Mom day and no one told me about it. Finally one of the Kids in the Park leaders saw that Matthew was pretty upset and took Matthew over to her car to see if she had any CDs he would like to use. A few minutes later I finally talked Josh and Daniel into singing something off my phone since I had it with me. Thankfully they agreed. To be honest, I really didn't want to see someone sing and Dance to Praise the Man or Book of Mormon Stories. Josh and Daniel performed and did great. Matthew finally found a CD he could use and performed his number. It is hard to hear, but he did sing. I didn't record Josh and Daniel because they were using my phone to play their karaoke music. And yes that is Noah starting to scream and cry yet again in the background **sigh**:




The whole time while they were performing I had to stand up with Noah because he would only scream if I tried to sit down. Unfortunately, when I had to stand Sarah couldn't see me and came unglued and started screaming herself. One of the other leaders had to hold her to calm her down because I wasn't strong enough to hold her and Noah at the same time while standing. I didn't have proper manners and stay until the end of the talent show because I was plain worn out. I ended up leaving after all the boys had performed because I was done with screaming kids!! Later on I came back and picked the boys up after Kids in the Park got over only to find Josh had gotten into trouble with one of the leaders after the talent show. I won't go into detail, but he really got in trouble!! After a quick lunch we headed over to do some bowling, but since Josh had gotten in trouble he wouldn't be able to bowl. He just had to sit and watch everyone else bowl. Well we got through about a game and a half when Sarah started getting restless. She ended up wandering down the lane and playing in the gutter. I tried to get her to come back, but short of me walking down the lane to get her I couldn't get her to mind. Once Sarah had finally gotten out of the gutter the bowling center employee came over and basically told me I needed to control my kids. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. We ended up leaving the bowling center mid game and coming home because my kids were having a really rough day indeed. I came home and made everyone have quiet time while I had a bath and cried. I guess we have days like this so we can really appreciate the days the kids are well behaved or at least moderately good! This is when the quote from Mary Anne Radmacher truly comes into play, "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'"

I try to take my kids to do fun things, but days like this make me question if I am crazy. Why do I do this to myself day after day only to have the kids misbehave and be rotten? I am totally outnumbered 5:1 and the kids really like to play the odds. I only have two eyes and two arms in which to keep track of everyone and that doesn't always work very well. I keep telling myself they will appreciate it when they are older, but that just doesn't make me feel better after I have all my kids screaming at me at once in public!!! I guess I will just have to pull up my big girl pants, take some deep breaths and tell myself...I can try again tomorrow. However, it is hard to stay mad and upset when the kids come later and tell you they love you or when they play with you.








Here's to hoping for a better day today and tomorrow!!