the weather is gorgeous today.
and yesterday.
practically perfect.
i was just sitting outside enjoying the weather…chatting via text with some friends
conincidentally about how i was feeling exhausted by parenting.
and i heard “MOM WE NEED TO SANITIZE THE BUTTER! ANNIE STEPPED IN IT!!!”
i sat for a moment and thought … why?
why is butter on the floor?
why is the country crock container ON THE FLOOR?!
how could this have possibly happened?
then i went inside.
it was on the floor IN THE LIVING ROOM?!!!
what the what?
my kids KNOW the rule of not eating anywhere but the dining room or kitchen.
they know it.
but they always break it!!!
they had made macaroni together (it is nice that they make their own lunch…)
and were eating it in the living room and
someone brought the butter in to add some extra to their bowl of macaroni.
and annie stepped IN it.
stepped in the butter?!!
it could be a long summer.
Lisa - Yep. Two days ago I had a mini meltdown when I asked my son to take care of his drinking glass, which was (on a coaster!) on the table in the living room, and then minutes late found he had put it on the kitchen counter…..right above the dishwasher! REALLY!?! Couldn’t he open the dishwasher and put it IN!?! (He and his dad are both bad about this) I did hold my temper, though, when I found the empty mini-m&m bag (meant for making cookies) in his bedroom closet last week. Some days are good, some days not so. Hang in there.
tracy fisher - if i had a dollar for every time i told them not to eat anywhere other than the kitchen i would be a very wealthy mom. haha. i hear you! -tracy
Alice H - Why must they always rebel?!?! Darn kids! I have a rule of NO FOOD in the bedrooms! For crying out loud this rule gets broken all the darn time. And I flip out every single time and my older 2 kids think its just hilarious or something.
Tracy - Sadly, this story could so easily apply to my house right now! So don’t feel badly…we’re in this together! You’re not alone. I love how you do notice the good thing. At least they made their own lunch!! LOL
Helen Shields - OMG i am laughing so hard with you not at you at the moment. I have three and I find myself having a meltdown at least twice a day. Crisp packets with my oldest, found one stuffed up the chimney, inside the lining of my new chair (really not happy with this) and 7 in his room the other day. Why don’t they learn!! I’ve told my husband I am going to record my voice and make one of those sound books since I find myself saying the same thing fifty million times a day. Hang in there Mrs.
Lisa - Sometimes it’s those kind of stupid things that make me lose my temper the most. Those are the kind of things that do make parenting exhausting sometimes. My oldest was helping my sister watch all 7 cousins and when I asked my daughter how it went and if her siblings did ok, she replied, “Well, it was easy when they were obeying.” I totally laughed and I told her, “it is easier when you all obey me too!” She got a sheepish look on her face, but I do think it made her think for a moment. Kids, such a blessing. Parenting them, so hard!
Stephanie - That’s ok–I’m pretty sure I stopped breathing during this event too. Lol.
Molly - oh my. i hear ya. sometimes i just don’t know what to say. the things they do.
Gretchen - My kids break the no-food-in-the-living-room rule all the time.
We homeschool so you’d think summer break would be no big deal as far as change for momma goes. Nope. Let’s just say that our 1st week of summer break was less than stellar. Sigh. I’m with ya.
By the way, I linked up to you in a blogpost this week. You might giggle because of my lack of SWAG knowledge.
http://neweveryam.blogspot.com/2013/06/coffee-and-urban-dictionary.html
Jen - We call the a “case of the stupids”. It’s exhausting, isn’t it? Hang in there, mama!
Carol S. - Isn’t it wonderful! I love the quiet mornings, then they wake up and things get a little messy. But I’ll take dirty butter over backpacks of forms and homework and tests and permission slips and….yeah, summer is great!
shepea - Well, at least they are not lighting off FIREWORKS in the bathroom in the middle of the day while you are at work because, you know, there are no windows in there so it could be completely dark for the light show. This may or may not have happened at my house. (No fingers or eyes were lost so I can laugh *almost* about it now.)
Heather - On the roof or in the butter… Yes, it could be a long summer. 🙂
Lindsey - Oh I LAUGHED when I read this! Sanitize the butter…oh my stars! It is super-funny when these things happen at other people’s houses 😉 Ha! Each day is a giant, beautiful mess waiting to happen.
Rach - Glad to see not much changes as they grow. I heard myself say “No Bug, cheese is not worn as a hat” the other day. Kids, eh? 🙂
Darlene - I think I am going to be saying “what the what ?” for a while now. Thanks for being so real!
Janelle - Hee hee. But those days do make good stories don’t they!? One day I was cleaning out the fridge and had all the food on the counter. I was busy and din’t think to check and see why my 2 year old and 3 year old were laughing hysterically in the other room. They had taken not one…but THREE bags of shredded cheese and were throwing all the cheese up in the air like it was confetti. We found little pieces of cheese everywhere for weeks 😉
elma - Ok me and my kids loved this one:)
Leah - Don’t feel too bad. It was the first day of our summer vacation and I found myself saying, “Toes don’t belong on the iPad.” Really?! It’s gonna be a long summer!
MeganM - One time I found a package of ham cold cuts stuffed in my couch! That was about enough to put me over the edge!
Leslie - LOL!! I was expecting a picture 🙂
Katie - My kids break our “only eat at the table” rule as well!! Right there with you! Today found me trying to explain to my two year old why water balloons stay outside! This is after he peed on the living room floor as he is potty training! Aarrgghh!
Pamela Gordon - Oh dear. Kids in the house and summer time. I always enjoy your family stories and even if I don’t visit often or comment I do check in once in a while. It’s been a while. Your kids are getting too big! Little Annie isn’t so little anymore and she is so pretty. They all are pretty/handsome! I love your photos in these recent posts especially the ones of the stormy skies. Amazing. Blessings to you and your family. Enjoy your summer and your kids. Pamela
Alyssa - Oh man. I thought you were going to say they were using as a slip and slide on the floor. There is always that…
GreenDavis - I literally stopped breathing I laughed so hard at this. Thank you for sharing this terrible, hilarious story.
GreenDavis - This made me laugh out loud (for reals). I love that their logic led them to conclude that it was necessary to “sanitize the butter.” Not that they should pick it up off the floor, throw it away, and get new butter–before Mom finds out. But to TELL you about it and then tell you to sanitize it.
Kids are so awesome and awful and delightful at the same time.
School gets out for us next week. I hope I can keep a sense of humor.
stephanie - BIg hugs! This is so what happens here with the rule about not eating in the living room. The little ones (4 and 2) are the biggest culprits, but the older ones will forget sometimes and wander around the house with food. We live in FL with BIG bugs and plenty of them, so they have gotten the lecture over and over again asking them if they want bugs in their rooms. We have seven and homeschool, so although I love my life–LOVE!–it does feel like two steps forward, three steps back much of the time.
ONe time, just after having a c-section with my 5th, I came out of the bathroom to find my two boys (5 and 2.5 at the time), STOMPING a poopy diaper into the carpet. As I ran towards them, mouth agape, silent screams not able to escape my throat, I saw with every stomp, poop would fly up and around them and my two older girls (6 and 8) who were standing there watching them, laughing. That piece of carpet never was the same. Scrubbing on hands and knees is no fun two weeks after major surgery. Now I can (mostly) laugh about it. 🙂
Lisa M. - Ha! At least mine did something like that on the driveway…and it was raining so no stickyness! 🙂 Glad it was not the kitchen!!
Heidi Jo the Artist - This is my everyday, ha ha… Every once and awhile I will get frustrated and have a mini meltdown; human here too. Especially if I’m feeling tired too, but these are the little things that you (and I) will laugh at someday. My 10 year old is pretty good around the kitchen since we are at home for a majority of our meals, while my daughter, age 6, is definitely still learning. Sometimes she makes messes that seem like common sense things to me–not to do. But then I think about it and say, wow, she is learning, her intentions are good, I need to have patience, she is only 6. I try to let it roll off my back, so to speak. I try to think–how frustrating and sad it would probably make me if someone got mad at me, every time I made a mistake.
My most recent frustrating moment lately, was probably the poop-est mess I’ve ever had to clean up. So maybe this will make your butter incident seem…not-so-bad. I was busy in the kitchen and my 2-year old and 10-year old were in another room. My 2-year old has this habit of sticking his hand down the back of his diaper these days, and well, he pooped, and you can imagine I’m sure how gross that all was. Some of my frustration was that my 10-year old was right there, and didn’t notice what he had been doing. Had the 2-year old been caught sooner it wouldn’t have been such a big mess. Ugh. Now, I can laugh about it…as long as it doesn’t happen for a third time, because it happened again in the same week, just not quite as bad as the first time. Kind of wish though, that I would have used my dad’s old phrase “I tell you what, POOP EVERYWHERE!” I grew up on a farm. And my dad never swore, so this was one of his phrases that he used when poop was involved, and us kids thought it was pretty hilarious since he wasn’t one to get super mad about things. Hope your day turns around, and that was only one bad moment of your day. 😉
Julie S - A few years ago, in the winter, I came home from school in between teaching and conferences with parents that evening to straighten up, start laundry and vacuum the floor in the living room. As I was vacuuming I moved one of the chairs to vacuum under it when lo and behold there was a full-sized Cheeto bag that mice had been eating from. When the children were confronted about it the 7th grader said, “Well, we aren’t supposed to be eating in the living room and when you and Dad showed up I just hid the bag under the chair.” For the mice to eat! We live in the country in an old farmhouse and trying to keep the mice population down with teenage boys who leave food everywhere is difficult! No wonder we couldn’t catch any mice with the traps, they were eating from the Cheeto buffet! I wanted to hurt him!
Good luck getting through the rest of the summer. I am at least lucky enough that they have to be out in the fields most of the time. Our food bill is outrageous though!
Laura Lynn - I seriously miss those days….honest!!!!
Aimee - Oh Meg I feel your pain. Today is my boys’ last day of school. I only have two but they can be handful enough. I foresee lots of long baths in the evenings after my hubby gets home from work this summer. I find myself saying “Seriously?! Did you seriously just do/say that?!” a lot.
Kerstie Pederson - On days like that I remind myself to breath, I am the most oxygenated woman I know! 😉
Alicia @ La Famille - one of those moments when you’re so p.o.ed and then you laugh at later, I’m sure. No? Not yet? Ok, maybe later then…
Rachel Reeves - I need resolution. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!
Mj - Good grief! My son once talked my daughter into shaking a soda and then poking a knife in the can. Sticky soda everywhere in the kitchen. EVEN after they thought they got it all. I am SO glad to be done with those years!!
Robin Canter - hhmmmm – in my house that would have gotten me sent to my room WITHOUT dinner; and believe me, next time I thought twice about breaking the rule of eating in the living room. If they keep breaking the rule, then the punishment isn’t harsh enough. just saying…
Christy - whew.. starting out with a bang
lisa currie-gurney - Oh my friend… I remember those days like they were last week.
Take a deeeeeeeeep breath.
Grab a book..
Go sit under a tree.
They will be grown and gone before you can say,
“Hun, could you stop at the store and pick up another tub of butter.”
😉
Hugs From My Heart
Becky - I’m so sorry to laugh at your pain, but this cracked me up. I have VERY strict rules about only eating in the kitchen and dining room, too, but everyone tries to sneak food into the living room when I’m not looking. What’s up with that?! It drives me crazy!
Lisa M. - Ha! I can’t beat stepping in butter on the living room floor, BUT as I write this the neighbor boy is at our house and instead of playing they decide it would be fun to open cans of soda and throw them up in the air and watch them land and explode on the driveway. I’ve allowed this because I just want to get my dishes done 😉 But in my head I’m thinking…” why can’t you just go jump on the trampoline??” Because they are 7 & 9 year old boys I guess. I can’t wait unitl it warms up and stops raining so we can swim every day!! 🙂