Life is the worst when I try to fight against the stream of our day.
For example, when I desperately want to get dinner made and the kids just won't cooperate. Even though the day before they played (semi) quietly on their own, that doesn't mean that the same thing will necessarily be replicated when needed most.
When my own plans are derailed, I have one of two choices. I can a)push harder again the flow and end up resentful or frustrated, or b) I can get flexible, take a deep breath and go with it.
This was the scene the other day as I tried to cook dinner. Hunger plus grumpy mom isn't a good look on me; all I wanted to do was make dinner so we could eat and be ready when Ben got home. But, Mimi and Bode wanted to be outside in "no man's land" yard, where danger lurks in every mud patch. We gravitated towards the trampoline because it's the one spot that Bode can crawl/practice walk in our back. (It's at this point where all I wanted to do was to just put them in there and zip it up-instant babysitter style-and leave to go to dinner. But, Bode is in the phase of needing constant supervision. I like that I just called it a phase...it's a reminder that darting around the house like a crazy person to help him avoid immediate danger isn't a forever thing. Just a few minutes ago I decided that maybe by age four this would change. Do you like my optimism?! Hopefully sooner...) Anyways, instead of steaming and resenting my little ones, I remembered a time last summer when Mimi and I shared a sweet, Iowan moment shucking corn on our back stoop. I've never felt more like a hands on mom! We may be city folk, but we do have Hawkeye roots (second hand)...so it felt good to teach Mimi how to shuck corn.
This was the scene the other day as I tried to cook dinner. Hunger plus grumpy mom isn't a good look on me; all I wanted to do was make dinner so we could eat and be ready when Ben got home. But, Mimi and Bode wanted to be outside in "no man's land" yard, where danger lurks in every mud patch. We gravitated towards the trampoline because it's the one spot that Bode can crawl/practice walk in our back. (It's at this point where all I wanted to do was to just put them in there and zip it up-instant babysitter style-and leave to go to dinner. But, Bode is in the phase of needing constant supervision. I like that I just called it a phase...it's a reminder that darting around the house like a crazy person to help him avoid immediate danger isn't a forever thing. Just a few minutes ago I decided that maybe by age four this would change. Do you like my optimism?! Hopefully sooner...) Anyways, instead of steaming and resenting my little ones, I remembered a time last summer when Mimi and I shared a sweet, Iowan moment shucking corn on our back stoop. I've never felt more like a hands on mom! We may be city folk, but we do have Hawkeye roots (second hand)...so it felt good to teach Mimi how to shuck corn.
With this memory in hand, I marched corn out to my kids and put them to work.
It was great. When they got sick of the corn (and I needed to wash the corn to get their grubby fingerprints off of it) Mimi demanded that I bring out more vegetables. So there it was, a homemade game of simple proportions. We traded corn, zucchini and onions back and forth, and I was able to make dinner.
It was a good night.
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