Learning to Roll with the Punches

As a young mom, you can never count on anything to go just how you want it to. Kids make your plans for you. Life makes your plans for you. You can either accept it and roll with it, or whine because nothing works out right. We all try. Try to keep order and finish our to-to lists while keeping our kids happy.  Try to keep our houses clean, despite sticky fingers, too many toys, pet hair, accidents. and spills. Try to keep up with the never ending laundry. I feel like I wipe my table down all day long. Is it completely gross every time I do? Yes! I could either let this frustrate me (I do. I admit it. I'm preaching to myself here.) or let it go.

Here's my day of rolling with the punches:

First a little back story...I bought maple syrup this weekend when I grocery shopped and when I got it home, I noticed the seal was broken and syrup had leaked out. Gross. No big deal. I'll return it. I'm putting away groceries when I notice I had two rolls of toilet paper left. No big deal. I have to go back to the grocery store, anyway.  I go to bake something. I forgot cooking spray. Well, crap. How much did I forget? No worries. I'll have to go back anyway. I made a list of the seven or so (yeah, seven...) things that I forgot and stick it on my fridge.

Fast forward to today.


My daughter wakes up with the same crazy hair every morning. Every morning I make it look adorable and send her on her merry way. This morning, I could see it in her eyes; if I made one move towards any brush or bow, she was going to lose it. She was going to do it herself. She grabbed a mismatched bow (nothing she was wearing today matched, anyway), fluffed up her frizz and smiled. I let it go.

Beautiful no matter how her hair is styled or what she is wearing. 

We pull up to the school this morning and the car lane attendants open the door to help my girl out of the car. I cringe every morning at this moment. The kids spilled snacks on the backseat, again. Her carseat is full of crumbs, as usual. I decide to pull it out and clean it when I get home. Using toothpicks, q-tips, soapy water and I got every crumb and spill off. I attacked the fabric with a vengeance. The words running through my head: "You are going to look brand new. Then, I'm going to blog about how clean I got you, you filthy...."  Well, I won't finish that sentence. Did it come perfectly clean? Nope. Am I going to blog about it? Nope. Big, fat sigh. Move on. It looks better than it did.

With that finished, I decide it's time to hop over to the store and exchange that syrup. I grab the syrup and decide that on the way I'm going to vacuum out my car. I get it done and my car looks nice now. I'm satisfied.  Halfway to the store, I  realize I forgot the list . At least I didn't forget the syrup, right? I piece it together and try to make it home before naptime, crossing my fingers I didn't forget anything. Suddenly, I'm starving. My son ate half my breakfast, despite having his own in front of him. I grab a pre-made sandwich and a bag of chips and a drink and head home. I get halfway home, and I'm irritated with myself. Really? Three bucks on a sandwich you could of made at home on less fancy bread? Yeah, I'm cheap. Oh well.

Rolling into the driveway, I realize the boy is asleep. Crap. If he gets a catnap in the car he doesn't nap the rest of the day. If I even touch that buckle, he'll wake up.  I wanted to clean! I wanted to blog! Ugh!! But, then I get smart. I roll with it. I run my cold groceries inside, grab my pre-made sandwich (thankful I bought it now) and my laptop and sit in my car with the a/c running so I can eat, blog, and let my crazy boy get a decent nap.

Then, I totally got crumbs in my nice, clean car. Oh well.

If you're new to motherhood, there is one piece of advice I can give you. Half the things you want to buy or think you need for your kids, you don't. What you'll need most is patience, lots and lots of patience, a sense of humor, the ability to roll with it, and knowing how to improvise.

Being a mom who can roll with it means you tell your daughter she's beautiful with her frizzy hair and mismatched clothes, because it is not her hair that makes her that way.

It means making do when you're frazzled and forgetful.

It means running the dishwasher half empty sometimes because the top rack always seems to be full and you have top rack only stuff sitting in your sink.

It means recognizing that funny faces are SO much more fun to make on clean glass.

It means accepting there will always be crumbs in your car, no matter how many times you say "No eating in the car! I mean it this time!"

It means that sometimes the convenience food is completely worth paying for.

It's letting your kids go to the store with a tutu and crown and cape and chocolate on their faces. It's the only time in their life they can get away with it.

It's accepting the stain that's never going to go away and putting the shirt on your kid anyway.

It's letting your kid splash in your sink, because it's the only way you're going to get to put on make up today.

No matter how organized, how prepared, how much you clean, not every day will go just right. Some days life has other plans and it's up to you to roll with it, keep your sense of humor, and keep smiling. Am I still preaching to myself here? Yes. Yes I am. No one needs to hear this more than me.


Relaxing Deep Breaths and Hugs,
     Cindy


If you're wondering, yes, this post was written in my car. Then, proofread while my daughter decided she wanted to wear a bathing suit. Just because. Because that's how we roll. What ways have you found to improvise when your day isn't so smooth?