You ARE going to miss this

Yesterday at church a few ladies and I were talking about how we knew we were going to miss these days (you know the ones – the diaper days, the sleepless night days, the wiping butts days, the holding sick kids days) but right now it just doesn’t seem like it. One day we will miss the mess.

Can I admit something? As I was letting our one year old eat yogurt by himself, I realized I missed a lot during my older kids’ younger years. I look back and think about how I didn’t cherish their snuggles and their need of me or their messes like I do now. During those first years of motherhood and trying to figure it out and trying to be super mom (which just left me irritable and exhausted), I missed a lot. I didn’t take the time to slow down and soak in the moments of littleness like I do now.

I was consumed in the laundry, in the making everything from scratch, carrying two non-walkers on my hips, cloth diapering, and cleaning up the perpetual mess in our tiny house.

But now I now have a seven year old who freaking reads chapter books. By herself. Without needing my help. And who helps her brother go through his sight words each night. I now have a six year old who can climb trees and who builds crazy awesome things with legos and who enjoys golfing with his dad. I now have a five year old who will fetch her one year old brother from his pack-n-play at nap time if my hands are full (and she does it with such joy!) and will hold a crying newborn with such tender love and care. I now have an almost four year old who can memorize lyrics to a song like no ones business and rarely needs me to cut his food up for him.

They grow up fast. I can attest to that and mine aren’t fully grown yet.

These little people will always be my babies but they sure do grow up fast and need me less and are becoming capable human beings. Gah!!!!!!!

If only I could go back and just savor those first years of motherhood a little bit longer, a lot bit harder than I did, I would. Because those first few years were more awesome, more sanctifying, and more worthy of the mess than I give them credit for.

REAL mom Wednesday

You know you are a REAL mom when…

*Monday was a MONDAY.

This past Monday all my kids had school off. Monday is typically my run errands with the babies day to get us going good and strong for the week but it was going to end up being take all six kids with me to run errands to make sure we have food to eat.

BUT, the catch was I had to go in to do my three hour glucose test. Bleh! It always leaves me feeling pretty crummy for the rest of the day but a mom’s got to do what a mom’s got to do. (I know, I know. I could have said no to the order or asked for something else to be done but sometimes I feel like things just aren’t of enough importance (for me at least) to raise a stink on every little thing. You do you on this issue and I’ll keep on chugging the nasty, sugary drink.)

By the time I arrived home the crummy feeling had well settled in. Garrett was making breakfast burritos, which was awesome but I ended up frantically cleaning up the kitchen as the baby was screaming (he needed a nap) and trying to round up all the kids on a beautiful day to make the trek to Costco. We made it though!

By the time we got home, I was shoveling food in my face because #lunchat2:30. Nora had an appointment to get her mullet trimmed (seriously, mom’s trim your child’s mullet. No one thinks it cute even if you are doing it for the sake of growing their hair out. Cut it. It looks awful. And don’t get all sentimental about it because it’s just hair. Kapeesh?).

I digress…we get to the hair salon 10 minutes late because #sugarcrash #toomanykidstobuckle #notenoughcaffeine. I won’t explain how it happened but the moment I got all the kids out of the van my entire purse with my chapstick, phone, and wallet were locked inside. Thankfully it is a friend who cuts our hair so she actually still cut Nora’s hair and then the kids and I walked around NewBo for about 2 hours waiting for Garrett to come rescue us.

The thing is he had forgotten his phone in his car so he didn’t get my voicemails asking for help until a loooooooong time after I left them. And sadly, his is the only number I can remember and I’m cheap and wasn’t about to call a locksmith when I knew my hubby would rescue us. But in true Hufford fashion we looked like white trash since two of my kids were in snow boots (who doesn’t wear brand new snow boots with the tags on, on a 60 degree day in October???), the baby was covered in chocolate (thanks to the giant brownie we bought using the money Eden had in her purse), I was covered in Nora’s hair trimmings, and Nora was without shoes but refused to sit in the stroller.

The kids and I sang all the jolly phonics songs we knew and we talked about what we were going to do if daddy never came with the spare key (we were going to get jobs at the coffee shop and popcorn place and rent an apartment and forever live in NewBo district). All in all it wasn’t bad. It was just a normal day in our lives.

RIP on a Monday

Yesterday was supposed to be a pretty chill day. I got all my grocery shopping for the week done on Sunday and there was cleaning to be done on Monday.

All was well until I went to start lunch. I noticed that our fish bowl was looking pretty low on water and the surrounding area was looking pretty wet. I called Ella and Garrison over to let them know that it was not okay to play with Hutson’s bowl. They admitted to the felony. As I lifted the bowl up the whole bottom fell out. Glass, rocks, stinky water, and of course our little buddy flooded our kitchen desk, floor, and surrounding area.

Poor Hutson died as I didn’t know how to save him. RIP little guy. You were a sweet, quiet pet. You lasted far longer than I thought. You cost far more money than I would have expected as well. We will miss you…well, we briefly missed you.

Needless to say, Monday did NOT turn out the way I expected (lets just say there was tons to clean up after the incident). Or how Hutson probably expected either.