If you drove by my house this morning you would have seen the children cleaning the yard to ready it for Christmas. You would be able to smell the brownies and goodies I was cooking wafting lazily in the frosty air and you would have found me with a gentle smile enjoying it all.
Well, maybe not that exactly....
If you were to have driven by at about 9:30 you would have seen the following:
A family of three standing by a dead, overgrown garden, sweating
A mother with a apron on inside out, hair frizzed from too much baking too early in the morning with over-sized rubber boots peaking out underneath
A shovel scraping the hardest clay in the county
A small son weeping without consolation holding a box with his recently departed guinea pig
An older son asking his brother if he thinks the pig is rotting yet
You know some days just don't go like planned. I have been trying to teach the boys that when you mess up, consider it a learning experience and move on. The smart people are not the ones that are perfect, they are the ones that learn from all their mistakes...yada, yada, yada.
This morning had the opportunity to practice what I preach. I decided to whip up a yummy dessert to take to the various parties we have this weekend. I doubled the recipe to have enough for everyone. I won't go into details but let's just say it did not go as planned....AT ALL!
But my attitude stayed up and we just kept being creative until we figured out a way to make it work!
As this was going on, I was also trying to make and gather the supplies I needed for a little arts and crafts class I do for some homeschool kids. Of course I had decided to do a craft that I had not done since second grade and only had a fuzzy idea of how to accomplish. Well that afforded a lot of learning opportunities, also! In the middle of a dash to clean the kitchen, tame my hair, get all the stuff together, gather some gifts and make it out in time to pick up some prescriptions, last minute pictures, and a few gifts from the store, my oldest son comes running in telling me that the guinea pig has literally picked that moment to die. He was fine just minutes before!
Therefore the slightly mad looking woman, distraught young child, and philosophical eldest are to be found grieving and burying a pig. Tis the season!!!
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8 comments:
Great post. I'm delusional, too.
I am so sorry for you and the boys. 'Tomorrows' another day' is what I always say on those kind of days:)
Oh no! Poor guinea - we're so sad!! BTW, I have 2 rabbits you are welcome to....
This is why we don't have pets...
I'm not ready for "your" day!
Merry Chrismtas!
That darn reality. I hate it when things die and make kids sad.
I hope ya'll have a Merry Christmas even so!!
Ahem...you failed to mention that the day ended with us singing our favorite Christmas songs accappella (how in the world do you spell that?) while 10 kiddos did crafts. I mean, that's pretty impressive.
Seriously. When I saw Judy today that is one of the things her kiddos told her. That we sat around singing while they made snowmen. It sounds kind of awesome when you hear someone else say it.
love you...thanks for loving us enough to still hang out after a stressful morning.
it was fabulous.
I'm sorry...I know you all were in grief mode at the moment, but I'm sitting here laughing hysterically at the picture you painted of the morning! Oh my gosh, TOO funny! I know, just call me a woman full of compassion.
I like how Alli managed to give us the rest of the story of how the day went. Sounds like over all, it was a day being swung on an emotional pendulum (or however you spell it). Hmmm, bi-polar Christmas anyone?
i am so sorry he didn't make it to see Christmas.
are you going to get another one?
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