A Mother's Prayer

We pulled in the driveway after getting home from work tonight.

Makayla runs in the house as I'm trailing behind lugging Mia in her carrier along with a purse, breast pump, a cooler of milk, the mail, Makayla's baby carrier, and two blankets.

I go back out to the car to open Mason's door.  Of course, I can't help him get out of the car because he can do it ALL BY HIMSELF (Mr. Independent Mason Curry).  As I'm standing beside the car waiting waiting waiting on him, I've dripped a gallon of sweat because it's 90 100 degrees out with 95% (?) humidity.
He finally gets out of the car and darts in the house...but doesn't make it to the door before he falls face first onto the concrete.
Picking him up, I begin to soothe him.
I nonchalantly look him over to see the damage, immediately checking his mouth and teeth - which, besides the fat upper lip, appeared fine.
Between the tears and sweat, we become one big wet mess.

His head hurts.

My heart hurts.

We finally get inside and I start getting ice for him to hold on his head.

What made me think he would hold it on there, I have no idea, but I thought I'd try.

As I'm getting ice,

Mason is crying,

Mia is crying - begging to get out of her seat, because yep - she was dropped off in the living room and kinda put on the back burner.

and Makayla is going a mile a minute with super glue in her hand (where did she get that?!) wanting and needing me to superglue something on to her hair brush. Right now.

I take in a deep breath.

All my kids need me right now (something I've been wanting to blog about),

Mason is hurt (he's number 1 right now),

and I still have to do 100 things before we need to leave for dance in 20 minutes.

*sigh*

Sometimes...I wonder how I'll make it to the end of the day!

And just when I start to pucker out, lose the wind in my sails, begin to wear down, I see this -

my blue eyed beauty

a smile through the pain

and a pregnant 4 year old

That's right - 

I know it's not a surprise to a lot of you that Makayla was pregnant tonight, but with each pregnancy she improves more and more.  It's scary.
Tonight she couldn't bend down AT ALL.  It "hurt too bad" to bend down.

Finally, when she had the baby (that I heard crying from all the way from upstairs) she STILL couldn't bend down because she was "too sore".
Wow.

She's funny.
Last night, she said "Ooooh, my contacts" with such conviction as she was fiddlng with her eye, that I swear she would have been able to convince anybody and everybody that she seriously wore contacts! 

When I asked her what contacts were, she said "Ummm, they're like little bubbles"...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Parenting.

It's hard sometimes.  really hard.

But I'm telling you, that no matter how hard it gets, or how tired I am,

these children of mine fill me up.

They put the wind back in my sails and they brighten my life.

In that moment tonight when I was...

 hot, 

wet from sweat and tears, 

had just finished a day at work, 

worried about the extent of Mason's boo-boo, 

wanting everybody to just stop crying and talking,

trying to pack a diaper bag,

passing out snacks before dance,

helping Mason hold the ice on his head,

letting Makayla know that I cared about her hairbrush,

playing peek-a-boo from afar with Mia...

I needed to remember this -

A Mother's Prayer

...

Give me patience when little hands 

tug at me with ceaseless, small demands.

Give me gentle words and smiling eyes,

to keep my lips from hasty, sharp replies.

Let not fatigue, confusion or noise

obscure my vision of life's fleeting joys

so when in years to come my house is still, 

beautiful memories its rooms may fill.
Author Unknown