I remember that night as clear as if it happened just last night. Like I mentioned before, it was the night that changed everything.
It was a Tuesday night, my husband was at a meeting that night and I am getting everything and everyone ready for Biblestudy to be held at our house. The kids are supposed to be upstairs getting ready for bed while I pick up the house, make coffee, etc. We had done this a million times so it should’ve been easy enough. Admittedly, we were running late and I am a bit harried at this point. The next thing I know, two of the ladies have shown up and I am still running up and down the stairs to be hospitable to them and yet help my kids get into bed.
As I leave the pleasant conversation of adults downstairs, I dash up the stairs hoping to find that things are running smoothly upstairs. That is not at all what I found. Instead I find The Talker, that should be brushing his teeth, standing in the bathroom with the squirt bottle in his hand. He is standing there giving the mirrors a bath. He does not have his pajamas on yet and it is clear that this squirt bottle has distracted from his bedtime jobs. As if this is not bad enough, I turn to take a breather before I lose my cool (because there are Biblestudy people downstairs, mind you) and what do I find? I find that all of his siblings are in their rooms changing their pajamas because he has squirted all of them. It takes everything I have to not come unglued at this point. I return to the bathroom to find him still standing there bathing the mirrors with not a care in the world. Absolutely clueless that this is not what he should be doing right now. Absolutely clueless that I am about to explode.
I manage to calm down enough to wake him back up to reality and stearnly instruct him in what he should be doing and get everyone into bed. Everyone is tucked in and I am completely done. I am at a loss as to what to do with this child. I just want to go to bed, pull the covers over my head and weep, but I have people waiting for me downstairs.
To be continued…I promise I won’t drag this out much longer. 🙂
I thought I was going to get the full story….but again – I am left hanging!!! Thanks so much for being honest. I know that this is not the point of your post but I was affected by your struggle to “do-it-all” on the nights that small group is at your house. That was such a struggle for me when we were hosting. There were many nights that I was frustrated with my kids because I was trying to get “the house ready” and the kids “put away” :)! Looking forward to hearing more of your story!