This is the Real Life

There are moments in life where you can't help but think "I am so glad no one is here to see this" or "I can never agree to have my life filmed for a reality TV show" or "I am so thankful God is in control because I don't got this." They only multiply when you become a mom. I would like to call these Mommy Moments.

I hope you moms know what I am talking about. You know--you are looking around proudly thinking that your child is fed and happy, and your husband is fed and happy, and then life takes a turn in the blink of an eye. Your daughter who has just started pulling up on things heads to the coffee table to pull up and see what is there, but you aren't worried because you just cleared all the lunch dishes from the lunch your husband and you had in front of the TV while your daughter was napping. Until you watch in horror from across the room as your daughter grabs the top of your husband's almost full (thankfully cooled!) tall coffee mug that you missed and yanks it over. You rush over with towels to clean up the coffee table and rug. You pull your daughter's coffee soaked clothes off and throw them into the washing machine along with the cover to the baby swing, which was also soaked. You hurriedly spot clean the stuffed electronic toy that was splattered. While your daughter clothed only in a diaper plays in eye-sight in the living room, you decide it is the perfect time also to wash the dog bed that your dog threw up on last night. You get the brilliant idea that you should empty the inner cover of the nasty and old foam mix that fills the bed and replace it with cedar. However, as you empty the inner cover into a trash bag, you miss the bag completely and end up with a huge pile of the stuff on the floor. While trying to pour the remaining amount into the bag, you steal a glance at your playing daughter and notice that she is playing with the bottles of acrylic paint that you had yet to put into your newly organized (as of 2 hours before) craft cabinet. You are now covered in nasty, old, possibly throw-up stained dog foam, so you send a silent prayer up that your daughter doesn't learn how to pop open tops at this exact moment, and you quickly go back to the dog foam mess. Some shoveling of foam into the bag and a quick vacuum with the handheld vacuum later, you are finally heading to the shower with your daughter.

You can't make this stuff up. It is Real Life. Our Christmas card may look like this:

but our reality is this:

And in all honesty, our reality suits us. Some moments just require a bit more humor than others, as well as the confidence "that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil 1:6). So, I guess, here is to all my future Mommy Moments--may God always bring us out on the other side laughing.