....to be continued

My morning got worse, for those of you who want the truth.

(For those of you who don't, I will tell you the girls and I made homemade beads and then strung them on hemp twine and decorated our hair with the woven jewelry, all whilst singing "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" by Peter, Paul and Mary.)

Thank goodness Emilie and kids came over to rescue me from my own bad mood. Prior to their arrival I attempted to exercise with the girls (rather than take Ella to her most unhappy place.) Picture me doing push-ups with Maya going over me head to toe with her toy vacuum or me doing walking lunges while she squirted my shirt with water and wiped my abdomen with a sponge.) This was followed by a brief but meaningful screaming episode on my part when I had had it with the girls yelling at each other over who uses the stool to brush their teeth first. Calm yelling with yelling? And then my overly optimistic friend Ange told me to use my angry, poor-parenting moment to be a better person for the rest of the day. Like I wasn't trying?

Showered, drank 2 cups of coffee, felt slightly improved and made lunch for us all. The kids jumped in the bounce house which, inflated, took up the entire living room. It was a total zoo. Then I heard Ella say, "this is the best party ever" and I was so glad that kids forgive so easily and that I don't rely on my own skills as a human being to parent our children alone all day. I also patted myself on the back for embracing the mess, the chaos, when deep inside I want to yell, "Stop! Restore order!" If anyone wants some deep, personal growth, I'm telling you- have a child. Or two if you really want to dig deep. (I don't know what's up with people who have more? Do they hope to be the Dahli Lahma?)

Then we went to Tia's house for an impromptu, snow day tea and Wii party which turned out to have many other guests, a lot of laughing, a coveted chocolate chip cookies and hot cocoa for the girls and some mean dancing to the Just Dance Wii game that has us all busting a move. And a gut.

Some more levity from the girls:

We got out of the house at Tia's and Maya said, "I walk in the snowman!!"

Ella asked me the other day, in a not so stressed moment, "Momma, do you like having kids?"

We toss the girls towels in the dryer so they are warm when they get out of the tub. Now we throw in the bathrobes too. When they get out, Maya yells, "Warm bathroom!" and won't even use the towel anymore.

And tonight, after a 25 minute supper prep that consisted of Maya crying at my feet, I said, "It is SO frustrating to make supper while someone cries at you the whole time." To this, Ella replied, "Tell me about it."

A confession: We are going to Burlington, VT next week to see Brandi Carlile in concert (happy sigh). We are going to be there two nights and because our childcare lives 2 hours away on Beals Island, we are likely going to be without the girls a night on each end. Did you do the math? That is 4 nights! I have had 2 good friends ask me if that is going to be "hard" or "too long." I have to wonder if I'm a bad parent that I think, hallelujah...