Perfection, Reality, and A Bucket of Ice

Do you feed your baby homemade organic carrots and quinoa that you grew in your very own garden? Do you cloth diaper them in only the finest cotton that you wove yourself? Do you wake up every morning, with great hair and a glowing complexion which is then followed by your smiling children asking nicely for breakfast?

Then what are you doing here? You win at this game. I can tell you, my life is nothing like that.

My delivery from Club W (the wine club) sits unopened on my bedroom floor. Along with a basket full of clean laundry, that if I'd folded, would have probably given Ciaran and Brennan pajamas to wear tonight instead of a couple of Reagan's tee-shirts.

I am staring at a pile of school paperwork that really needs to be done ASAP, and I still haven't gotten Brennan evaluated for the district.

I'm drowning in appointments and a to-do list as long as my arm before school starts, and I'm kind of at the point where I just want to hide away from it until October.

I wake up looking like I've only barely escaped from the filming of a horror film, and I generally am awakened to Ciaran shaking me and asking ridiculous questions like "Can you turn a PS2 into a PS3?" or "Do waffles sing?" I mean seriously? I was having a dream this morning that we moved into a really nice house that didn't have a list of things that needed to be fixed.  And he woke me up. I'm still not happy about that. You could probably tell.

While I'm a teensy bit overwhelmed right now, there is a little voice inside my head, like a tiny pep squad leader saying, "Go to bed early, get up at 6:30 and tackle your day! You can do it!"

I kind of hate her. 

To be fair, I don't just hate her. Right now I also hate Annoying Orange, YouTube videos that make my kid weird, glitter, Justin Beiber, and baby clothes in Target that make my ovaries hurt. Not necessarily in that order. I think I also have a tiny inner Daria, and she is very loud, tonight.

There is some good news, though. Like, they took Liam out of the afternoon class they had him in. It's Early Childhood Special Education. It's going to be so good for him. But that child naps every day from 12:30 -3, and that's when they wanted him in class.  That was going to be bad for everyone. Now he'll be in a class from 9 - 11:30, then home for lunch and nap. That makes me so happy, I can almost forget how much I hate my inner pep squad leader. Almost.

Maybe all I need is a good night's sleep. And definitely to stop reading mommy blogs that are all pictures of perfectly dressed, happy kids, and homemade arts and crafts that look like they should be in a magazine. I'm not that mom. I've never been that mom. I will never be that mom.

I am, however, the mom that will let her kids pour ice water on her head. I took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge today. I'm offering up the video in case anyone hasn't seen it yet. I did it in the morning before my shower. I figured it would be easier. So, no makeup and bad hair. But it's all for a good cause!




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