Survivior Island

Thinking back to that 1st year of being a parent to my 1 beautiful little girl...she was the light of my life and my days and nights evolved around her. I remember thinking at times how tiring and difficult this parenting thing can be...I had no idea what the future had in store for me!
Amazing how when you have one little baby and the world turns upside down. Trying to figure out a new way of life with no sleep can be trying for any new parent. But yet you find time to bathe that baby every day, you manage to catch all the precious milestones on camera, when those 1st teethies start to come in you meticulously brush them....you learn to "parent"....and then baby #2 comes along and in my case quickly followed by baby #3 and you go from "parenting" to "surviving". Instead of doing what's best and having the time to rationalize your every move you snap into "lets just maintain"! You try the reg. bath routine but then you have those wk.s were you catch yourself smelling the children to see which ones are "due'', you catch yourself wrangling the toddlers for a teeth brushing which means you sit on one while shoving that toothbrush in and praying that your dental insurance holds out cause you know you are going to be needing it.
Life is vibrant and colorful here in the Farris house to say the least. You will often hear the giggling of at least one child and the screams of another. It can seldom be described as peaceful. I know the toddler yrs. are short lived and the screams and door slamming of teenagers are just around the corner. So I sit here at 4pm in my pajamas, hair in a ponytail, smelling like babywipes and peanut butter thinking how blessed I am. Your life is what you make of it which includes those bumps in the roads, those temper tantrums on isle 4, the bedtime nightmares...choose to make something of it all. I am a mother. It is the role God laid out for me. He prepared me and he gives me strength to get through ever challenging day.
My days are filled with so many trials and in doing my best to just keep the house standing and the children alive I can sometimes forget why I am here and why I should be "happy".
How do I describe my "mothering"? probably best put as ''the mother who wants to do it all" even though I am fully aware a mother of 3 can't possibly accomplish it all. I want my kids to experience life. I want them to get messy and enjoy themselves.
I think at times their only purpose is to drive me insane. But I can easily be distracted with kisses and cuddles. And even though peace and quiet is something I crave the few times it has happened in my house usually means that my lil' troop is up to no good...whether that means painting the baby, going Picasso on my furniture, or finding multiple uses for a tube of Desitin...toothpaste, lotion, hair gel...you get the picture...I still embrace them and know that without all the trials they set in front of us they wouldn't learn or be curious about life. I rather them be curious and trying to discover themselves and life then just sit back and be clean and neat. I could go without the 4hrs. at urgent care trying to get a polly pocket shoe out of a 3yr. olds nose but we saved the shoe...its in his trophy box and is now a valued prize. :-)
Being a 1st time parent is hard work...being a parent to 3 is a challenge. And the Farris children have it down to a fine art. LOL!
I stayed up till midnight making a batch of rainbow cupcakes. A lot of work and I was starting to regret getting into this project as I watched the clock ticking by while the last batched baked but when those lil' faces woke up the next morning and saw what Mommy made them...it was all worth it. How often do you get cupcakes for breakfast? I was Mom of the Year for the whole day!
Their faces may not be clean all the time, the laundry will be pilled up, and someone will probably be in timeout because I'm just too tired to go over why you can't jump off the top bunk even if you have a cape on but I refuse to give up my special moments of playing in the mud, eating cupcakes for breakfast, or setting up a full size tent in my livingroom for guests to have to walk thru.
This is my adventure...and I will survive. :-)