Friday, April 22, 2011

CHAOS?....You can't HANDLE the chaos!!!!!

I'm channeling Jack Nicholson and Pioneer Woman. :-)

Here's Energizer Bunny #1
...the calmest of the bunch. She's deceptively quiet and incredibly intense...she's mostly sweet as sugar though, so I can't (and won't) complain.




Energizer Bunny #2...she's our half-n-half. Mostly she's cool, calm and collected, but if you get her with her brother (or her Aunt Jenny), you'd think I put an i.v. of sugar in her system.


And me-oh-my. Shep is in his own category. The Energizer Bunny ain't got nothin' on this kid! He's loud, animated, dynamic, enthusiastic, busy, zealous...and did I mention he's loud??? Within 2 minutes of being woken up (ALWAYS by him), my blood pressure feels like it's at dangerous levels. I often have to drift off to my "happy place" when I'm with Shep, or else Chad would be admitting me in to an insane assylum from WORD OVERLOAD!!!!!!!!!!



Yesterday, after my work-out at the YMCA, I checked the kids out of the Kids Zone. As I was leaving, I bumped in to a friend and we struck up a conversation. While her three kids stood pristinely still, MY three kids took that opportunity to "divide and conquer". Lillie toddled to the Foozball table to swipe some balls, Rauly snuck over to the Atrium to twirl ballerina twirls around the wobbly sign, and Shep decided to pick THAT moment to bounce up and down like Tigger...up-n-down...up-n-down...in my face, hands raised as if he were in a basketball game...trying to get my attn.

**Let me just pause here and say that I can handle a fair amount of chaos...I've learned to deal with consistent loud noise, I've learned to ignore pesky children who repeatedly try to interrupt, and have pretty much mastered the skill of watching my children out of the corner of my eyes. However, there is a certain "Chaos Meter" I think every mother has...and mine hit the LIMIT.**

So, after shooting fire out of my eyes at Shepherd to try to silently tell him to STOP,...I finally apologized to my friend (whose children were all three standing as still as statues) to reprimand Shepherd in my oh-so-scary mommy voice. Once I felt he fully understood the wrath he was messing with, I turned back to my friend to finish our conversation. But during the time that I had paused to reprimand Shep, Lillie Anna had somehow managed to get her hand stuck in the Foozball ball slot. :-/ So, I hurriedly said goodbye to Kara as I muttered something under my breath about there ALWAYS being chaos....but as I turned to save Lillie Anna's hand,...as if in slow motion...I heard this gosh-awful-LOUD-crash, that seemed to echo off of every wall in the entire building. I felt rather than saw the eyes in the gym turn to see what in the world had happened...and my "mommy intuition" knew that the loud noise had been caused by my middle child.

Sure enough, I peeked in to the atrium, and Rauly was sprawled out on the floor, with the wobbly YMCA sign laying on top of her (in pieces) and two men were attempting to pick her up. (sigh)

I wound up helping Rauly first (since she'd drawn the most attn), and quickly went to save Lillie's hand. Then grabbed each child by their ears to haul them out! (Ok, I didn't really haul them out by the ears - but I WANTED to!!) Needless to say, I was the "Old woman who lives in a shoe" that night and spanked the kids soundly before putting them in bed 1.5 hours earlier than normal!

Thankfully every afternoon isn't like that...but I do frequently have to remind myself to breathe (literally sigh all. the. time.) and am really learning how to walk in this journey of craziness with peace!!!


I'll leave you with this sweet picture...ah, if only life was clean Chap's clothes and pretty poofy white dresses ALL the time, right? :-)

5 comments:

Morgan Holt said...

HA! Sounds OH SO familiar! However, my youngest isn't at the stage of getting into anything just yet! Clara....our middle child (must be a middle child thing), gets attention easily by being the "trouble maker" in the family. Not sure how I'm going to survive the chaos either but I guess us moms just need to stick together during these times. Your children are just beautiful and although, no children are perfect, they make like worth living, huh?!? :)

Jamie said...

Oh my goodness!!! I'm laughing out loud right now! (Mainly b/c I've been in your shoes....but also b/c I can totally imagine the whole disastrous scene!)
That is just downright hilarious.

Gina Harmon said...

Jamie, you took the words right out of my mouth. Lindsey, you're the best story teller. It truly paints a picture (a fast moving picture) so that I always feel like I'm one of the spectators actually watching it happen. LOL! Thank the Lord that He gave us a sense of humor and that He has one too! I'm sure He was entertained by all 4 of you!!!

Anonymous said...

Hahahahahahaha! So funny, now, not then though, I am sure!

Michael and Hannah said...

But is he loud??? ;o)

LOVE the poofiness!!!!