A Christmas Miracle
[This is a little late, but it came up recently, so we may as well post it...]
We had a little Christmas miracle this past December. What happened was this: one Wednesday morning when my husband was away (which is a big deal, because Wednesdays are band days for my oldest, which means he has to be at his school at 7:30, and so with my spouse gone this leaves me to get two of the kids on their bus at 7 and have the other four in the car by 7:15) I woke up my 5-yr-old and was getting his groggy little arms into his clothes when he said to me, "Mom, remember, I need to have an ornament today." Not in a worried voice, not in a sheepish Gee-I-forgot voice, but in a low, accusing, this-is-your-problem-woman voice.
The ultimate miracle is, of course, that he lived past that moment and I didn't scream or yell at all.
The next miracle is that for some stupid reason, even with us packing up to move and chucking everything we don't really need around the house, I had saved an egg carton "in case i decide to make something with the kids." AND while Christmas shopping I'd grabbed a spool of red ribbon for no specific reason, just felt like it might come in handy. AND somehow the other kids were getting dressed and fed on time and the baby stayed asleep. AND I was able to find scissors. These are all mini-miracles in and of themselves, trust me, but to all occur on the same morning when the need was so great is amazing. So, with desperate inspiration driving me, in about five minutes I had cut out a couple sections of the egg carton, wrapped foil over them, strung them on some ribbon, and handed them off to my child, who did not seem the least bit impressed or appreciative of how hard it is to come up with a tree ornament on no warning at 6:20am as he got on his bus. I put jackets over the youngest kids' pajamas, got the two big kids packed up, even got the dogs some food before we headed out the door, still on time. i even had time to stop my oldest and say, "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For not being pre-broken in for you. Where i would have completely lost it and yelled and hollered at you for forgetting to tell me about something you needed for school until the morning it was due, I can manage to be so much calmer for your little siblings. So I'm sorry I'm not pre-broken in, but on behalf of your siblings I thank you for the suffering and mistakes you have already and will yet endure in order to create for them a better mother."
"Uh, oh. OK. SHouldn't we get going now? Is that cereal bar for me?"
Six kids, one mom, two dogs, and a Christmas tree all dressed and content before 7:30am, and to band on time. What more could one want?
We had a little Christmas miracle this past December. What happened was this: one Wednesday morning when my husband was away (which is a big deal, because Wednesdays are band days for my oldest, which means he has to be at his school at 7:30, and so with my spouse gone this leaves me to get two of the kids on their bus at 7 and have the other four in the car by 7:15) I woke up my 5-yr-old and was getting his groggy little arms into his clothes when he said to me, "Mom, remember, I need to have an ornament today." Not in a worried voice, not in a sheepish Gee-I-forgot voice, but in a low, accusing, this-is-your-problem-woman voice.
The ultimate miracle is, of course, that he lived past that moment and I didn't scream or yell at all.
The next miracle is that for some stupid reason, even with us packing up to move and chucking everything we don't really need around the house, I had saved an egg carton "in case i decide to make something with the kids." AND while Christmas shopping I'd grabbed a spool of red ribbon for no specific reason, just felt like it might come in handy. AND somehow the other kids were getting dressed and fed on time and the baby stayed asleep. AND I was able to find scissors. These are all mini-miracles in and of themselves, trust me, but to all occur on the same morning when the need was so great is amazing. So, with desperate inspiration driving me, in about five minutes I had cut out a couple sections of the egg carton, wrapped foil over them, strung them on some ribbon, and handed them off to my child, who did not seem the least bit impressed or appreciative of how hard it is to come up with a tree ornament on no warning at 6:20am as he got on his bus. I put jackets over the youngest kids' pajamas, got the two big kids packed up, even got the dogs some food before we headed out the door, still on time. i even had time to stop my oldest and say, "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For not being pre-broken in for you. Where i would have completely lost it and yelled and hollered at you for forgetting to tell me about something you needed for school until the morning it was due, I can manage to be so much calmer for your little siblings. So I'm sorry I'm not pre-broken in, but on behalf of your siblings I thank you for the suffering and mistakes you have already and will yet endure in order to create for them a better mother."
"Uh, oh. OK. SHouldn't we get going now? Is that cereal bar for me?"
Six kids, one mom, two dogs, and a Christmas tree all dressed and content before 7:30am, and to band on time. What more could one want?
posted by Jake Freivald at
7:10 PM
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