Monday Madness

When I worked Mondays at the hospital it was always craziness. Pure craziness. I thought that when I started staying home with the kids that Monday would just be another day. Boy, was I wrong. Monday is still just as crazy as ever.

This morning my oldest woke up me, nothing unusual about that, she's an early riser. Then I noticed the chunks of missing hair. Chunks of missing hair. Wait, what is going on here? Why does your head look like this?

We just had this conversation last night. Last. Night. We read Fancy Nancy Hair Dos and Hair Don'ts. In the story fancy Nancy cuts her own hair with scissors to make it fancy for school pictures. Then she is embarrassed, because her hair looks terrible. She regrets cutting it and gets in trouble with her parents, because she broke the rule of only using scissors for paper. I remember thinking what a great teaching moment! My dear 4 year old, with the thick wavy locks, and I had a great discussion. We talked about how, just like at Nancy's house, scissors are for paper and how only mommy uses them to cut hair.

Fail. Apparently, all that actually happened was me giving my own fancy Nancy the brilliant idea to cut her hair.

Not only did she cut her own hair, she cut the hair of several baby dolls and a pony. Here is the evidence.

After we had a nice recap of the previous nights conversation, and I dispensed some discipline we settled into the morning as usual.

I had told the girls yesterday that we were going strawberry picking again today. We went last week with our mom's group and had a wonderful time. We got some great pictures. And we ate 8lbs of strawberries in 3 days! However, I didn't really want to go today. It was wet, looked like rain, and I just didn't want to load everyone up and go down there. But I had said we were going, so we did. They were so excited! As we got into the row, I noticed just how muddy it was. Very very muddy. I already know that my 1 year old is going to get nasty. I mean, I have to put him down to pick strawberries, so I resolve to this fate and put him down.

So, I'm picking and they kids are playing. The mud is creeping up their little legs like the kudzu on the trees in our back yard. By the time I have the bottom of the box flat red with strawberries my little man has mud from head to toe. And the girls have lost their shoes. Since I have no towels or changes of clothes I decide to cut my losses. I put the strawberries down and pick my muddy boy. I ask my fancy Nancy to bring the box of strawberries out of the field. I ask my other daughter to pick up the shoes, which seem to be glued to the ground and we slowly make our way out of the patch. Just as we get to the end, fancy Nancy slips, in the mud of course, and down she goes. Those hard picked strawberries scatter and she bursts into tears. I put the dirty boy down to comfort the dirty girl and attempt to retrieve our haul. So the dirty boy burst into tears.

There we are in a beautiful strawberry field, all covered in mud, 2 kids in tears and our berries sinking into oblivion. We were a hot mess. Slowly, I got the berries picked up, got fancy Nancy up and moving and get to the check out. I pay the $3.88 and ask for some plastic bags. The man smiles at my muddy little people. I apologize for stealing half the dirt from his farm, but he just grins and asks if he can take my berries to the car for me. Yes please! And thank you!

We finally get over to the van and I strip everyone to their skivvys, put all their mud coated clothes in a bag and buckle up my nearly naked babies. What a sight they must have been when we got home, marching out of the van and into the house, muddy and barely clothed! But it was such a relief to be home. I ushered them all into the tub where they soaked and played for a while. Then it was lunch and naps for the kids. I did laundry, dishes and started on supper. *sigh*

Monday madness. It's still here. Despite the chaotic craziness I'm thankful to have these days with my kids. One day they will look back and say "do you remember that time we went strawberry picking and got covered in mud? It was so much fun!" Hopefully they will have fond memories, though I may burst into tears! just kidding. kinda.

What was your Monday madness like?

Lindsey