One of THOSE days...

Did you ever have one of those days that makes you question where the "joy" is in motherhood? Today was definitely one of those days.

We'll begin this story with culprit number one-The four year old. Lately he has been wanting to take his nap without his pants on. He says he likes to feel the covers on his legs. I say sure, why not I don't like sleeping in my jeans either. His body is still not able to sleep without relaxing his bladder, so I make sure he understands he needs to keep his pull-up on. When he comes upstairs this morning he is in his shirt and a blanket wrapped around his waist. What? I took off my pants he says and my pull-up last night. Oh no...

Oh yes, apparently he slept with his shirt on last night but nothing else. Oh goodie, I love stripping, washing, and remaking the sheets, blankets, stuffed animals and the comforter on his bottom bunk!

Now on to culprit number two-the adorable newborn. He has had a cold lately and I'm thinking all of extra fluids are making his tummy upset in the form of large amounts of spit up pretty much every time he eats. My favorite today was the gallon that went right down my shirt missing the burp cloth and soaking all of my layers of clothes. More stripping and laundry to be done.

Culprit number three-my imaginative nine year old. Brody decides that he really want to take a bath tonight because Ella got him these really fun bathtub paints for his birthday on Monday. Michael runs him bath water and two minutes later he needs to use the bathroom. I get him out and lift up the lid on the toilet and notice wet toilet paper around the sides of the toilet. Brody why is there toilet paper on the toilet? He has no idea. I take my question out to the rest of the crew in the basement. Dallin finally says, well Brody had gone to the bathroom earlier and there was a lot of toilet paper in the toilet and so he uses the toilet bowl brush to make a hole in the middle for his stormtrooper guys? WHAT again? Two things sprang to my mind immediately, Brody had used the restroom earlier and had gone number two without asking me to help him wipe and then didn't flush and most likely didn't bother to wash his hands either. Secondly, what happened to the toilet bowl brush? Yes, that's right he puts it back in its decorative container covered in wet toilet paper and poo. Yes, lots of chunky poo! Poor Michael had to deal with that clean up.

Culprit number four-my newly turned eight year old. I come upstairs after dealing with all of that to find her washing her hands and her shirt sleeves in the sink? WHAT IS GOING ON? She claims she was hot. I guess getting her sleeves soaking wet in the sink made perfect sense to her.

I only wish it ended there. After scripture and prayer I usually read a book to the older two kids. We've been reading a children's version of Little Women recently and they really love it. In the two second between prayer and me finding the book Brody puts on Ella's "Christmas glasses" (they look like 3D glasses but they makes your colored Christmas lights sparkle differently) and she starts crying and yelling because he's using them wrong and he's going to break them, etc, etc. Immediately after I get them calmed down Brody decides he has to hold these beans things Dallin got today at school and of course Dallin refuses to even let him look at them, so I just look at Michael and ask how we managed to raise two of the most selfish children in the world and that sends everyone into even more dramatized breakdowns. (I take full responsibility for that breakdown because I know a good mother would never say such things about her children).

It was late and I was seriously done for the day and so I calmly try to explain that we all just need to go to bed and start fresh in the morning when they both start yelling and crying vehemently about how unfair it all was that I wasn't going to read to them tonight!

REALLY!?!?! Did I mention that I spilled the baby's vitamins on the couch yesterday so that now everytime I sit down I get a nice whiff of nasty smelling vitamins. Now I think it's my turn for a meltdown and some quality time with the Lord's ear tonight begging for our break to be a little more fun and a lot less drama!