I don't know about other dual income families, but for ours Friday greets us with a total wreck of a home. We are able to sustain whatever organization we found over the weekend until about Wednesday and then it's downhill from there. This week we got a new refrigerator (that adventure may be a whole other post all by itself!) so the situation was even worse than normal. Friday I came home with determination in my fingertips - I would accomplish organization come hell or high water. The hell and the high water came in the form of a smoke filled house and a smell that rivals that of a grease pit!
With the choo choo resounding in the back of my head "I think I can, I think I can" I set forth in my task. Having just bought a pack of construction paper that would supply a small preschool class, I thought setting little man up at the table with a craft project would buy me ample time to cook dinner. (Princess and daddy were at horeseback riding lessons) But then just when I think I'm smart I have to go and try to be brilliant. I would let him play "puter." I suppose the overachiever in me just couldn't be satisified with cooking dinner, running a load of laundry and cleaning the kitchen at the same time... nope, I had to make THIS the evening that I make my child do something interactive instead of being mesmerized by his army of friends on Sprout! I'm sure there are millions of perfect computer games out there for a three year old, my little man always seems content with the one's he plays at maw maws, but NONE of them are in my house. After perusing the Calliou, Blue's Clues, Elmo and Boohbah discs and discovering that none of them were ones he could navigate without my undivided attention I gave up. "Come on buddy, want to go watch Sprout?"
And we walked into the kitchen in to the beginnings of my creation - a grease fire. Prior to my computer game discovery hunt I had began preheating olive oil for Kung Pao Chicken and stifry, which had then became three rooms of smoke that painfully filled my lungs. I turned on fans, opened doors and calmly proceeded to prepare said dinner. What I would have never anticipated is that now, two days later, the smell of my near tragic experience still lingers. I've distributed every essential oil I own (and there are many!) throughout the house in every conceivable way, I've burned every candle and sprayed every dissenfectant. I've even let every fathomable surface soak in Clorox. IT WILL NOT GO AWAY!
But alas, there are approximately 14 more hours left in my weekend and although it began in flames, it has turned out pretty darn well. Thank God I'm an optimist. Come 2:00 on Saturday I had most of the house clean, next week's menu planned, the school year calendar updated, and bookbags packed for school to begin. I was ready to reward myself with some downt
ime at the pool. My family emerged from our front door to a blacked sky that was about to open up the flood gates. The rain came. The rain came fast, hard and furious. I looked at my kids in their bathing suits and downturned faces. "Want to play in the rain?" I asked. They looked at me like my ears were rolling down my shoulders or something. Probably trying to ascertain if their mother had gone crazy. "Really?" aksed Ms. Logic. "Yep, take off - do whatever you want!" And they did.Watching your kids do something for the first time is nothing short of life changing. As adults we simply don't know that level of pure and innocent joy. Well, I would argue that we do know it we just don't allow it to be present. I wanted to join them, but my energy was spent so I reveled in their delight from the sidelines. What I learned yesterday as I watched my little ducks in the rain was what it truly means to seize the moment. I am thankful for my lesson and hope that I am alert enough to know when the next opportunity arrises!
