I am that type of mother

Four days into the kindergarten school year, and so far so good for my little girl! She loves school and makes it known to her little brother that she doesn’t miss him one bit during her mornings away. Little does she know that the poor boy misses her more than he lets on. Ah, the joys of sibling relationships.

Through all of this change and adjustment, I’m quickly learning more about myself this week…what makes me tick and what I need to change in myself. Here’s the short list:

• Since having children, I have accepted the fact that I’m usually 5-10 minutes late for most things. Heck, some people call it being “fashionably late”, or what I like refer to as “fashionably on time.” My lovely friend Sarah and I practice this frequently, knowing that whenever we plan to meet, just tack on 5-10 (in her case, I tack on 15-25). J However, the school bus and its meticulously planned pick-up route know NOTHING about this common practice. Actually, I take that back. They DO know about it, but it applies only to them and not to me or anyone else. The bus can arrive 5 minutes early, right on time, or 5 minutes late…and I’m the one who needs to comply, not vice versa. While we haven’t missed the bus (yet), there already were two mornings this week that involved rushing around, frantic hair brushing, carrying a boy in pj’s and no shoes, and getting to the bus stop within 1-2 minutes of Big Yellow’s arrival.
  
  

• I have been severely spoiled over the past two years. On days that I go to work, our friend/neighbor/babysitter Dianna has been the breakfast-giver and sometimes child-dresser in the mornings. Now, it’s me who needs to pull it together and get the kids (and myself) dressed, fed, and out the door on time. And again, as mentioned in #1, it’s a tight deadline!

• Stress makes me do funny things. Like break out in “Ice, Ice, Baby” when my son asks for ice in his water. Or literally break out in hives (or some kind of itchy bumps) around my neck. Or not realize until it’s faaar too late that the “ground turkey” I thawed out and was trying to cook over the stove for tacos was actually ham loaf. Or not answer emails for weeks on end, then completely forget about them and tick people off. You know, stuff like that.

So, yes, I am THAT mother…the one that I scoffed at in the past and thought, “That woman better get her act together”…the one that I wrongly judged and I swore I’d never be. I think I had myself fooled all these years, thinking I’m some sort of organized phenom. In actuality, I keep things clean (vacuum, dust, etc.) and love to multi-task, but I stink at holding it all together when under pressure and a lot of stress in a short amount of time. My Wonder Woman hat (and boots…yes, I do have Wonder Woman rain boots) seems to be taking a break lately. Oh, Proverbs 31 woman, how in the world did you do it??