Mommyhood Success, Always in the Making

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I'm not normally what you would call punctual. Yet somehow, I finally got the hang of this half-an-hour-earlier-than-last-year bus schedule and I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. One month into the school year, I'm no longer battling the snooze button for half an hour (I've whittled it down to five minutes) and I'm marching the kids out the front door well fed, teeth cleaned, wearing matching, ironed outfits and coordinating hair accessories — hoorah! Don't get me wrong, if I wasted even a single minute at all we'd miss the bus for sure

I've managed this success story by preparing backpacks and outfits at bedtime instead of the next morning. Most of my Mommy readers will likely think… Yes, dumb dumb… this is not a new idea… Hey! I'm not exactly a domestic diva and my Mommy brain is not always fully charged. For example, I only started ironing my kids' clothes this year and my oldest is six — does this tell you anything? All this time I've been making my husband do it. He was a Marine after all, make him do the ironing!

My hubby keeps teasing me that I'm becoming more and more domesticated every day. I shudder when he says this. I will admit, however, that this whole organization thing is kind of addictive. We missed the bus only once so far, because my husband wanted to discuss the size of my daughter's apparently distracting headband instead of walk the kids out the door. I cried while driving the kids to school because I'd been so used to catching the bus these past few weeks. I felt like a complete failure. New rule: No more headband size discussions. We're back to being on time again, so hopefully I can hold off on another morning Mommy meltdown for a while.

I will admit that this whole organization thing is kind of addictive.

While the school year has forced me to organize and set routines, I still crave a bit of craziness throughout the week. I have to keep things interesting somehow. This is just my way. For instance, I took a nap yesterday. What?! Yes, a real nap. I hardly even knew what it was when it happened. This nap was such a rare event that I should have thrown a party afterward to celebrate, but instead we took all the kids to the mall during what should have been dinner time and bought video games for the Wii which my hubby and I stayed up way too late playing and now I'm longing for another nap. It's amazing how just a simple break from routine can have a domino effect on the rest of the day. New rule: no more naps.

I've been a Mom for over six years now and I'm still learning. This Mom stuff is hard. There's so much involved! Backpacks, cooking, playtime, cleanup, diapers, homework, tantrums, discipline, teaching, shoes that fit, CLEANUP, clothes, hugs, kisses, books, baths, games, toys, trips to the park, outings, playgroup, strollers, training wheels, CLEANUP — and that's just the stuff I've dealt with this week! Did I mention I also run a business from home? As if raising four little kids isn't enough like running a company, I've got a real business to run. It's just plain ridiculous to even think that a human being can handle all this. When I explain this to people, they look at me cross-eyed.

I must say that the chaos (that is becoming more and more routine although I'm not willing to fully admit that) is totally worth it. If I can master getting all the kids on the bus on time AND all this, then I can do absolutely anything. So when the kids' bus driver told me this morning, "I'll be coming five minutes earlier from now on" my jaw dropped, but I merely replied, "Bring it on."

EJ Curran is a Delaware mom. Read her blog, Four Little Monsters, at FourLittleMonsters.com

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