Snowed In.

What a four days it has been! Let me just recap...

Thursday - School is called, I get up finish prepping for snow start doing laundry and working from home when the pipes 'busted' and my washing machine leaked all into my floor. Turned out there was an issue with the city line, they fixed it and my pipes did not bust.

Friday- Fisher wakes up with a tummy ache and is doubled over feeling downright bad. I had NOTHING in the house to soothe this so I layered up while it was still snowing, made my way to the store and got these things. Made it home, he feels fine. Friday night Fisher falls and busts his lip open...I mean OPEN. Get that solved and he's fine. Miles un-decorated and re-decorated the Christmas tree every five minutes while managing to eat several things that should not have been eaten. 

Saturday- My house was clean when I went to bed and seemingly destroyed within the few hours we were awake. Fisher bit himself and it looked like a spider bite. But being stir crazy started to sink in and I could feel my patience wearing thinner than it already was. I gave up on Saturday entirely.

Today - house is still a disaster, I gave up on it the third time I cleaned it on Friday afternoon and the cleaning before it was destroyed on Saturday was just for good measure and maybe that last little inch to get my pearls. Kids refused to eat real food, gave up on that too - they ate junk all day today and are still alive, so I call that a win. The boys kept fighting and at one point I was convinced they were going to go straight up Hunger Games, gave up on solving that problem real quick or I was going to become their next victim. Fisher fell and scratched his side up pretty well but lived through that too. I did manage to get out of the house for a while and bought myself some cordial cherries…that the kids fed to the dog.

But I say all of that to say - I lost my cool a couple of times while trapped indoors with everyone in my house, I'm not a perfect mother. I shouted the boys shouted and we fought and I was fairly stressed since Thursday morning. But tonight when it was all said and done while I gave the boys baths and took a deep breath because I realized we had all survived this together –  I was overwhelmed with a feeling that I had learned so much more about each of my kids this weekend.

Jack is a passionate artist with one of the most creative minds I’ve ever seen. He’s so much like me in that aspect – which explains why he and I butt heads sometimes. I can personally relate to the feeling of having so much energy and vision that it’s hard to just “harness” it so-to-speak. But once he started putting pen to paper and explaining everything to me I saw that spark in him. It was amazing. He has such big ideas and wants to make such a lasting impression on the people around him and he doesn’t even know it yet. He talks about having proof-readers and people who can help him channel his artwork. The conversations we had, while may have been passing to him, were everlasting for me.

Fisher is the most accident prone child I have ever met. Ever. He is a walking representation of Murphy’s Law. You can literally see the accident before it even happens. He runs everywhere and is absolutely fearless. But he is so tender-hearted and loving and when he gets hurt he is brave and strong. He has his little quirks like not touching certain kinds of bread and sticky things and not sitting down in restaurants he doesn’t feel comfortable in…but at the end of the day he is a sponge and takes in everything around him…and remembers it. I know this because he called me out on a cookie I promised yesterday in exchange for 5 minutes of quiet time that I never paid up on. 

Miles will eat anything. ANYTHING. He consumed an entire tube of red-velvet cupcake chapstick, his weight in old Halloween candy, dog food, his plate of food followed by my plate of food, a cotton ball, cordial cherries, and I think he may have swallowed Atlantis at some point. But he’s funny about it. He’s just exploring the world around him and he has to know how everything feels and taste. Watching him explore and learn, while frustrating when he un-decorates my Christmas tree for the fifteenth time to touch and feel the ornaments, is still fun to watch. 

And while I feel like I was stressed this entire snowed-in weekend I realize that tonight God brought be peace and realization. Mostly realization that even when I’m at my wits end with things and I feel like I’m going to lose my mind if I do not talk to someone who can drive a vehicle without the word “Tonka” on the side of it, I am still able to look back and realize that I have learned and loved through it all. 

My kids are my life and my inspiration and I know I say that often but this weekend really gave me time to realize who they are as people. And while I am FAR from a perfect mother I like to think that the memories we make are helping to shape them into the people they are going to become.

The other thing I learned? 

Technology is the only thing that saved my sanity this weekend.