As a parent you think you have made yourself clear. Given your children at least semi-concise instructions. Instilled some sort of common sense obedient wisdom in their little selves. One happenstance, stumble upon a scene, and you are proven entirely wrong. Entirely. This is the climax of your parenting, #nailedit moment. #ornot.
Johnathan and I both experienced these today. Solidarity parenting, at least we can claim that. Saturday morning and I slept in, my arrival was late to greet my guys. They hadn't eaten yet. So I decided I would prepare a healthful breakfast. Yogurt parfaits, I sliced peaches, washed blueberries, spooned Dannon Light & Fit yogurt, and sprinkled Special K Granola. Oh yeah, except my boys wanted everything separate. So I spooned the fresh fruit in a bowl for each of them, with a side cup of yogurt, and hold the granola.
After prepping their breakfast, my 10 week old was ready for hers, so I went into the living/reading room to feed her. This is the scene I happened upon once I finished.
Apparently the fresh cut fruit was not sweet enough on its own. We needed to bring the sugar canister used for baking to the table and shovel spoonfuls onto our peaches and blueberries. Nice sugar "bowl". Nice, "I don't like blueberries with sugar." Nice, I'm pretty sure they reverted to spooning sugar directly into their mouths. Healthful.
The other instance which amused me, included my husband asking my 3 1/2 year old to turn off the sprinkler water. A couple hours later this is what he came outside to find. Water still "on", but the sprinkler was covered and not spraying. How can you not love this? #nailedit #ornot
Tonight is the last night of summer vacay 2014. Tomorrow we return to alarms, school, schedules, and all of this & that. It is enough to make a #mommaintheburbs take inventory. I had some stuff I wanted to accomplish this summer. I was probably ambitious, a little too much so. Especially as we started off this summer with a newborn addition to our family. Ambitions, as in my "patio school." A thirty to forty minute period of time when we would retreat to the screened in patio and...learn. Learn what you ask? Geography...grandpa covered that lesson. I followed up a couple times with our Melissa and Doug world map write-a-mat. Numbers...we made it through a fourth of a workbook and involved the 3 old, barely. Arts and the sciences. When I finally realized that academic retention wasn't the focus, and a more field work philosophy was our best bet, we started making considerable headway in our education.
Summer swim team took up most of our mornings. Weekly and bi-weekly afternoon trips to the Children's Museum, Space and Rocket Center, parks, and neighborhood pool were some of the other highlights.
I recall an afternoon of errands followed by 31 flavors (Baskin Robbins.) A park excursion followed by Sonic Happy Hour. An oil change followed by toy browsing at Walmart. A drop in to The Little Gym open house during a downpour. The zoo, Costco, Toys-R-Us, bowling, birthday parties, farmers markets, library, day camps, biking, and croquet. The seemingly simple, but when the addition of an infant is factored, these events seem momentous. Perhaps even, ambitious!?! Or not, there are refugee families making their way out of war torn countries as I type.
In contrast, we topped off the summer with a trip to the beach. Alligator farm, dolphin cruise, seafood scarf, and National Naval Aviation Museum. We returned back home only four days prior to the beginning of the new school year. I prepped by having the supplies and clothing already purchased. Today we lunched at Panda Express as per our 7 year old-2nd grade bound boy decided, and went on a hunt for a Salad Shooter. My circa 2000 model didn't make it in our last move, and our garden is yielding zucchini's so I had promised my boys homemade zucchini bread. Apparently Salad Shooters are a hard-to-come-by-commodity nowadays. We struck out at both Walmart and Target, in between getting our school bound boy a haircut. Oh yeah, we also grew a garden this summer. Ambitious? Perhaps even, momentous? Not when compared to the families eking out survival in Gaza, the Middle East, South America, Africa, inner and rural cities in the United States and other such under-privileged, or havoc wreaked communities. Yet the contrast doesn't make our time less significant, it just makes my perspective a bit more positive. Summertime, and the living's easy. Indeed.
A friend of mine recently summed up her current reality as a "bad-dark-place". It is a terrible destination. I've been there. There are many routes. Sometimes you jump on the crazy train, and don't bail. Sometimes others put you in the boxcar. Sometimes you present your pricey ticket backed by cheap illusions, "all aboard", and have a lovely time, until you get kicked off and deposited in some train depot called desolation.
However you get there, by your own accord or with the help of others, it is a "bad-dark-place". It is palpable. By the time you get there, no amount of rationalizations or delusions can dispel the truth of where you stand.
So what keeps you going? You can't just let yourself deconstruct. So what do you do? Hijack it the hell out? There are multiple routes out of the desolate abandon. But this is where it gets tricky. Are you as the 90's GnR album so adequately expressed, "using your illusions"? Or are you treading out on truth?
This is where you should anticipate some indecision. I don't know about you, but my mind, body, heart, & spirit seem to battle it out for the acquisition, attainability, and ultimate acceptance of a conferred upon truth. Something of a modern day drawn & quartering, rendered by all, a violation of the common good. Until they, finally, all white-flag, in amity. It is a sort of a pulled-in-all-directions, crossroads compromise.
None of my components of self actually desire to meet this dark demise. The ultimate destruction. They won't always agree, but they, eventually, find a way to look to the light. Light & truth.
For me, light sometimes proceeds truth. The physical light somehow creates a ubiquitous aperture to truth. The way in which I can best describe this core, is through the scripture verse found in John 14:6, which reads,
" Jesus saith unto him, I am the way the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
I do not say this tritely. In conjunction with the Frank Lloyd Wright quote:
"The truth is more important than the facts"
I can say this for a fact. Jesus Christ holds true to his promises.
"Ask , and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."- Matthew 7:7
And in my experience? That opening referred to has been a portal to light, knowledge, wisdom, answers, hope, light, and peace. Mind, body, heart, & spirit conjoin in a co-op and jump off the "crazy train" heading on the "road to no-where". Although, don't be fooled, the truth-train isn't going to be parked and waiting for your immediate arrival. It often requires a trek through the dark to the light at the end of the tunnel. But, your efforts will be rewarded and you will, eventually, get to the opening. "Seek and ye shall find", truth can sometimes proceed light.
" But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." - John 3:21
"All Aboard!" Light & truth. Truth & light. This, that, & the other. Whichever it be, you need to hijack the hell on before you find yourself "Goin' off the rails on the crazy train. Hahaha" -Ozzy Osbourne
