A Culture of Gratitude. Day 3.

Today is November 3nd.
Today marks 22 days until Thanksgiving.

Today I am grateful for the 5 minutes of quiet I managed to carve out for myself this evening.

It doesn't happen too terribly often.

The Munchkins were cranky when I scooped them up from school today.

They generally are on Thursdays. It's like a second Monday around my house...they're just a little out of synch. And so I try to low-key it on days when they return to my house. I'd planned mac & cheese with smoked sausages cut up in them (and on the side for The Biz...never mixed in...not for her) and a movie night complete with floorbeds in the living room.

...

But, of course, nothing went according to plan.

Which is the norm here. So we rolled with it.

Somewhere along the way from School to daycare to the grocery for a gallon of milk and a couple rolls of toilet paper and home, The Munchkins went from grouchy and out-of-sorts to Full.On.Meltdown.

It was not pretty.

I was hanging on by a thread.

So when we hit the front door and there were literally kidlets littering the front floor...lying on their backs and crying from exhaustion, I nearly lost it.

I cow-pusher shoveled everyone up the stairs en masse. I gave everyone three pieces of Halloween Candy and a book from the upper bookcase, lined them up in the upstairs hallway and we had "The Talk".


Look, gang, Mommy's TIRED.
You're TIRED.

We're all CRANKY.

I get it.
Would bubble baths help? (three nods. Bubble Baths are a big favorite in our house)

Okay. So, if you can all be quiet for 5 minutes while I put the noodles on and go to the bathroom? We'll start the whole evening over, okay? (three more solemn nods.)

And so we did.
And it was the quietest, most peaceful 5 minutes of my entire evening.

Owing, probably to the candy, but I'm hoping everyone just happily overlooks that parenting gaffe.  We had bubble baths times three, and noodles for dinner, and then I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30 while The Munchkins very very quietly watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

So I'm thankful for the five minutes...

When you take into consideration that your kids' emotions ride the train to crazy every five minutes or so...and that  they can start out having a meltdown, fight amongst themselves, and still end up laughing and playing together all within the space of half an hour or so...you either hop on board with crazy or let it drive you nuts.

Sometimes that five minutes is all you need.
Just five minutes

To hit reset.