Thanks?

Today has been one of "those" days... the kind that begins at 3am, with child #1 and a croup-like cough. You stick them in bed with you where they continue to cough and keep you awake till you finally decide that it's "morning" enough to get out of bed.

You do do all of those things that have to be done in the morning, waking up children #1 and #2, who don't want to be awake because of the late hour they were up till the night before, with a grumbly, draggy, sluggish attitude. You pack up lunches, yelling at child #2 to please put her pants on and come eat her breakfast whilst trying to comb out child #1's matted bedhead. Finally you tell everyone to get their backpacks, shoes, coats, and breakfast and just get in the car. You do this not one, not two, but three times. I practice the 7's times tables with #1 in the car between telling #2 to PLEASE stop wiping your syrupy hands on the seat!!! Arriving at school I sincerely tell #1 and #2 that I DO love them and to have a good day- and to #2, don't get any reminders! As I pull away and they walk into school I want to scream, #2 has NO coat on. Seeing as it was only 30 degrees out, a good mother would probably have rummaged around in the car, found a jacket, turned around and taken it in to her child... I've never claimed to be a good mother....

Upon arriving home I try to do an exercise DVD first thing, get it over with so I can continue on with more pleasant tasks for the day... like laundry. #3 doesn't feel well today and just wants to be close to me. I don't know about you but I find that doing pushups with a 30lbs child on your back is hard. But hey, I AM the one with the "If they helped you get you in the condition you're in, why not use them to help ya get you out." saying, so pushups with a thirty pound monkey on my back it is.

Laundry. I am always behind on that stuff. Like I can't ever just be caught up! My goal for the day, kinda, was to get it done. Well... it is now 5:15pm and... the "last" load is in the washer... however, it's almost jammy time... which means... another load of dirty laundry sitting in the hall...  >.<

Between laundry, dishes, vacuuming and a child that insists on being held, I get some dinner going in one of my besties, Crockpot. Nice chilly day for soup! Mmm! It will be so nice to have this good, hot, soup ready so we can all just sit down for dinner this evening. I'm doing good! <pat on the back> I have a few minutes so changing the left brake light bulb on my car seems like a good idea. I'm handy like that... sometimes. And I don't want to be pulled over for it again. Ick. I am so very irritated to discover that it is not merely a bulb problem, but is something way beyond my handy abilities to fix. Grumble, grumble. I am soooo getting a ticket for this stupid brake light being out. Mark my words.

I go to fetch my #1 and #2 from school, in stealth, cop avoiding mode. I need to be there early so my coatless #2 doesn't stand in the cold and freeze to death. Hooray! No reminders today! Homework went without a hitch. Sweet! Apparently the entire 1st grade class flunked last weeks spelling test so we're doing a repeat. Hmm... I forgot... or never knew... that my husband wasn't going to be home for dinner. If I had remembered... or known... I probably wouldn't have went through the trouble of filling Crockpot up with all that delicious soup. Oh well, the children and I will do our best to put a dent in it. Guess what! #2 apparently "hates this nasty, old, gross soup"... as does #3... something about the carrots being "matchstick" style vs. "chips"... sounds like crap to me, but hey, if she doesn't want soup then she can just eat the leftover scraps out of her lunchbox! (Not a good mom...)

I'm not sure what the point of this post was going to be... I will blame that on not getting much sleep last night. I think, because of the title, that I was going to tie it in with being thankful and grateful for things in my life like having laundry, having a car, having soup- even if it has "matchstick" carrots in it. Being grateful that I have children, even if they don't always listen and hate my cooking. I really hope that maybe someday, instead of being grumbly, and complaining about all the things that are "wrong" I can start focusing on the things that are right and good. I know I am blessed and that I really do have a lot to be thankful for. So act like it!

Well, I'm off to enjoy this rare evening with no extra-curricular activities, with my children. I truly am thankful for that!