Thankful for moments of calm

Yesterday morning I headed to Target for a couple of key items. We couldn't find Ry's 'Cars 2 McQueen' car and it needed to be replaced - asap. We had no dish soap. Swim diapers seemed like a good idea for Carter (who will jump in to the pool whether or not somewhere is there to catch him) As we loaded & unloaded the 3 little kids, I was having deja vu. Car seats crowding the car, toddler yelling to get out of the cart, small people asking for toys, games, candy, gum, crayons, a pillow pet & whatever else happened into their line of sight. Luckily, on this trip, which also included stopping at the kid's consignment store to replace Carter's forgotten shoes, the bank and the grocery store to get purple soy milk because the blue soy milk just wasn't the same, I also had two 14 year olds to help. It still took three times as long as it should have and somehow we also ended up buying Phineas and Ferb band-aids.

After we went to Target to replace the all important Cars 2 McQueen (not to be confused with his Cars 1 McQueen) and we got Carter some shoes, we went through the drive thru of BK to feed the lils before we went to swimming lessons. Tate got a hamburger and Ry got chicken. Tate whined that he really wanted chicken (apparently I was supposed to know that even though he said hamburger & always gets a hamburger) and Ry yelled because Carter grabbed one of his nuggets out of his hand and shoved it into his little baby mouth. The whole time I'm thinking - this was my life... every single day.

Swimming lessons went better than the day before mostly because the visit didn't culminate in Carter puking in the pool and all over the pool deck while I gagged. We now have 2 colors of soy milk, thank goodness. Ry and Carter have been amazingly good. But I'm still WORN OUT and reflecting on the fact that I did the lil kid thing for years & mostly without any teenagers hanging around to help. I think I'm good at taking care of small people but also have come to expect and enjoy having a bit of quiet time to myself. I almost had a melt down after walking back from the park, getting Ry to eat something, getting all the boys bathed, etc. All of us were hot, grumpy, sweaty, dirty, thirsty and hungry.

After a couple of hours, two bathtubs full of water, mac & cheese + Cars gogurt + 2 different flavors of V8 Fusion, cleaning the kitchen, cleaning up the water that didn't stay in the tub, 3 sets of pj's, 3 different types/sizes of overnight diaperish wear, one movie, 3 different special blankets, Mr Shark & White Tiger and one bottle of soy milk (blue)...all was quiet.

Sometimes it takes the chaos to fully appreciate the moments of calm.