Mistaken

Last night I stood by the stove top, in front of a pan full of taco meat, something I have done MANY times before. The t.v. was on and there were kid voices all around me, requesting things and making exclamations.

On one side of me, near the pantry was a child nagging me for “nuts”. The kind you use with bolts. Because all the sudden he is totally into looking up short, easy science experiments on Youtube and the latest one required four of those. I told him he was “nuts” for asking me WHILE I was trying to make dinner and dessert at the same time.  That’s right, taco meat in the pan, brownie mix in the bowl. Dude, work with me here.

On the other side, by the fridge, was the girl. The cute, blue-eye blondie who makes me giggle with her giggle. However, in this moment she was spilling a yogurt smoothie all over her school uniform, which I had asked her to take off an hour beforehand. She did not. There was smoothie on the floor, in her hair and on her big toe. I also asked her to wait on drinking the smoothie, since you know, dinner was almost ready and stuff.

Meanwhile their big brother was hollering from the other room because the printer wasn’t working again. Our printer has a mind of its own. He was working on a school project and needed to print a few things. You’ll never guess they were there when we woke up in the morning (see this post for reference).

In that moment I actually said “Calgon take me away” and if you know where that came from I love you.

By the end of the evening everyone was cleaned up (baths and showers are a good thing) and their bellies were full of delicious things.  The science experiment (at least that one) never came to fruition because their father took all the “nuts” (no pun intended) with him and well, some nine-year old just gave up on that one. Not that we won’t revisit it the next day after school… (he is a VERY determined child).

Sometimes I think I cannot do this. Sometimes it’s overwhelming, even with older, fairly independent kids.  Sometimes I think, “OH MY GOD, how will I ever?”  Single parent, that is. And even though chaos does occasionally ensue, I have no complaints. My life is full of good. However, boundary-testing is still a thing at ages 7, 9 and 12. Just FYI. Hashtag #ThankGodGodInventedWine

So yes, I was mistaken in thinking I cannot do this. I was mistaken in thinking we cannot all four do this together, because we can. Some days it just seems a bit more difficult than others. So as they say, no one ever said it would be easy (but I am pretty sure they said it would be worth it).

Love these little beasts.

 

Linking up with MamaKat – “Write a blog post inspired by the word: mistaken.”