Reality

Early this month I was at a MOPS meeting with some of my other mom friends. Normally I would enjoy the Christian fellowship, but this month I have been assessing myself as mother/wife. I listened as many of them talk about their homes, husbands, and children.

I don’t know if they intended for me to have the mental pictures I was creating or not, but they were coming fast and furious.

All I could see were perfectly clean children dressed well and adorned with beautiful bows and neatly combed hair. Then came the images of the children standing near the door of an immaculately spotless home greeting their father as he enters his castle, which smells of dinner simmering. Lastly, I see this mother, wait I mean wife who is dressed complete with makeup and heels meeting her husband with a drink and kiss.

OK- so for weeks I have been wondering what is wrong with my home?

My reality is:
Within a week both of my children have eaten dirt.
Then, there was the day that one of the twins ate the play dough.
Oh, did I mention that one of the girls refuses to stop playing to go to the potty so I change her panties at least 4 times a day due to dribbling in them. I won’t even go through the potty training days with you.
As soon as I try to clean the French doors in the sun room the girls are rubbing their hands all over them- they think they are helping me clean.
This one happens to be my favorite, when the girls were little (about 8 months old) Blythe ate a whole paper towel and we didn’t know until it came out the other end.
Bree used to love to splash in the toilet when she was about a year old.
When I fold clothes, they unfold them.
Bree licked the uncooked turkey on Thanksgiving.
They’ve been climbing since they were 10 months old- enough said.

Oh- you ask where I am while all this is going on. Well, I wish I could say I was giving the maid instructions of what to clean up or the nanny an itinerary, and then off to eat bonbons and have my nails done, all before I lay out by the pool and tan. The fact is I am constantly one step behind them; my feet have blistered as I try to head them off at the next turn. The house is usually untidy and unorganized, but the kids do not lack in the areas of exploration and life experiences. Is this to say I do not try to keep a clean home? No, but I do have a sense of reality- or at least mine.

My reality is that my children will only be small for a while and then they will be off to school, ball practices, and other activities leaving me plenty of time to clean and fix myself up. My reality is that I present my children to my husband as they are: beautiful, even when they are still in their PJ’s at 5:00PM with dirt smears and paint on their faces. I present myself much in the same way expect instead of the dirt and paint it might be flour from the dinner I attempted to cook, but burned because I was refereeing at fight. While my husband may come home to a clean home it may not be straight. More than likely he will have to weave his way through the toys that are creating a maze on the rug. Oh, the drink and kiss- not happening. If any drinks are to be given out it will be the imaginary margarita in my hand as I day dream of lying on the beach- in my pre-baby body!

I just have to assume that this is actually the reality of many of my MOPS friends. I love all my MOPS friends, but can not believe they are all better than me at mothering and housekeeping. Oh I do believe that some of them are, but I know that there are a few that share my reality.