One Moment Makes It All Worth It

Lucas, Lily, and Lorelei looking sweet... for now.

Typical afternoon at my house. I finally grab my things from work, pick up Lorelei and Lucas, then buzz over to Lily's school and grab her. And before we can even pull out of the parking lot, it starts. "Mom, she's touching me!" "Momma, Lucas won't stop making farting noises." These comments from the backseat are followed by various ouch noises and grunts of displeasure all topped off with Lily screaming from her car seat, "ABC song!" So I start singing to make her happy and get a small amount of peace. I can already tell it is going to be one of THOSE afternoons.

So, we get home and everyone files out of my car like clowns arriving at the circus. They trip on one another, drop their bags, leave the car doors open, let the dogs out of the yard, until finally we all drag ourselves in the house. Nobody wants to do homework, of course, and everybody wants a snack. So, I get Lorelei, Lucas, and Lily situated with a snack and get out their school papers from the day, sign forms, initial agendas, get out homework to be done, and go through the mail. But no one seems to be happy. They are fighting and arguing and crying and throwing toys and yelling and is it just CHAOS!!!

Have you ever seen "I Dream of Genie"? All she does is wiggle that perfectly cute little nose of hers and life hits the pause button. Oh how I wished I had one of those noses at this point! Just a do-over. Just a pause. Just to catch my breath. But you moms and dads know there is no time for such luxuries. We gotta keep going! And so I do...

Crazy kids!

Calmly, I get Lorelei and Lucas seated at the table doing homework and I get Lily settled with some toys and then rush into the kitchen to try to start some dinner. Now at this point in the afternoon I am super mom. I am cooking and cleaning up and getting kids doing their work and making the smaller one happy and I am using my best sweet mommy voice to get it all done. But, unfortunately, this lasts for only a fleeting moment. It is like my children can sense that I am about to do something important. They also seem to know when I am about to relax. :)

While I am trying to start dinner, at 4:30 in the afternoon mind you because you gotta start early in my house or it will never get done, Lily comes into the kitchen and is under foot. She is following me around the kitchen crying wanting dinner and wanting me to hold her. I urge her, in my sweet mommy voice, to go play. Yeah, that ain't working. She won't leave and then demands I sing the ABC song. So, I am holding her on one hip trying to cook dinner while singing the ABC song. I mean this is just MADDNESS!! Meanwhile, Lorelei and Lucas continually stop me because they need help on their homework.

Now people who know me know that I am very noise senstitive. I can tolerate high levels of noise for a little while, but then I just lose it and need silence. This is the main reason I didn't get a degree in early childhood education and that I don't watch a lot of television. However, oddly enough, it did not prevent me from having three children. ;)

Sweet mommy voice is gone! I am yelling at them to hush and I make Lily go to the living room and lay down and I even yell at the dogs for barking. I just want everything to be quiet so I can cook dinner and get everyone fed and get homework done and baths done so I can go to sleep.

All three children are now pouting and snubbing. This continues until dinner is ready thirty minutes later. We sit down to eat and of course no one is hungry. Lorelei and Lucas do not like the chicken and pasta with vegetables while Lily throws hers in the floor. Wasn't she complaining most of the afternoon about wanting something to eat? At this point I have decided that tomorrow night's dinner will be a bowl of cereal. Lily may not want to eat, but she sure does want me to keep singing the ABC song. So I sing and cry because I am frustrated and tired.

Dinner has been force-fed down everyone's mouth, homework is done, dishes are now in the sink instead of being on the table and I consider this to be great progress. So, I herd everyone upstairs for baths. Lucas, because he is a boy, does not want to be clean and so he complains. Lily loves being clean, but only wants to stand up in the tub which she thinks is fun and which I consider dangerous. And Lorelei is taking what must be a thirty minute shower and is surely costing me an astronomical amount on my water bill. And while I am washing hair and cleaning bottoms, I am just a singing the ABC song.

They are all dry, they are all dressed, the stories are read, the teeth are relatively brushed, and now it is time for kisses good night. I take a moment to rock Lily a little before I put her in the crib, but she wants me to sing the ABC song.

My sweet mommy voice returns and I sing to her about three times and then the most wonderful thing happened. Lily started to sing the song back to me! She misses a few of the letters, but it is very clear that she is singing the ABC song to me. It is the most wonderful, happy, joyous, unexpected thing ever! I mouth the words along with her and I start to cry. This is one of those things I wondered if she would be able to do; sing a song to me. And I began to reflect on the day...

All the tears of the day seemed worth it to me now. The thirty plus times I had sung the ABC song. The tears of frustration. The chaos of the afternoon. It was all worth it. Just for one song. And as if it couldn't get any better I leaned over and kissed her good night and gave her one last "I love you."

And with perfectly clear pronunciation, Lily Pad said, "I love you."

Thank you Jesus for these moments for they remind me of your blessings in both my life and in Lily's. You are mighty to save. AMEN!