I’m sitting here polishing off the last of my shredded wheats and blueberries.  Exciting, huh? Sometimes after a somewhat long day, this is all I really need- just a bowl of cereal….ugh, this sucks!

Wait, just sit back down, this is not going to be a rant of the over-tired, under- appreciated, run into the ground mom…it could very easily be- but it won’t.  I don’t have the energy for that:).

It is uncanny the number of times recently someone tells me, “I don’t know how you do it with three?!”  “Hell, are you kidding me?  This is nothing- one of my best friends in the whole world has SIX!!!!- Stick that in your pipe and smoke on it for a little while!”

How do any of us do it?  One, in my mind, is no different.  (Albeit, my time with just one was just a blip on the radar- I still remember it being tough.)  I’m starting to think it’s just a stage I’m in…you know that memory thing I’ve been talking about….I think this is all linked.

I have three; 11, 10, and 3.  If those age differences don’t make you want to hit the bottle, I don’t know what does!  Just kidding- untie your panties!  I love it- it’s crazy as hell in my life right now and my mini van still smells like urine from some Thomas the Train underwear Trippe peed in earlier, but it’s ok.  It’s just the stage we are in.  My grandmother has this cross-stitch duck picture  in her house (or she did when I a child). See picture above.  So whether it’s none, one, 3, or 6 kids- we all are paddling like hell under the water at certain stages in life no matter what the rest of the world sees.  Some of our beaks are just breaking the surface of the water at times and that’s ok too,  because it’s just a phase.

I looked at my calendar today.  You know that cutsie “Mommy” calendar that has all the custsie stickers for the various kids appointments and activities. (BTW, Have you ever noticed there is not ONE sticker that represents a wine glass, or in the case of my friend with six, a beer mug for mamasita?  What’s up with that?)  You would think I was managing the schedules for a bunch of diplomats the way they are always coming and going.  I really should paint my van yellow and stick a taxi sign on top and really make some cash!  I think it’s when I am on these “runs” that I’m really at my peak performance.  For example, yesterday when I was at the girls school to attend a field trip meeting, Julia stops me in the hallway to get all over me about not doing something she needed me to-do that hadn’t been done right away.  Honestly, I can’t even remember what it was (memory thing) but told her, “Julia, I’m just doing good to get here at this point honey.”  Her sweet teacher just smiled at me and shook her head like you poor thing- and you have three!  I go to the meeting, whip out my mom calendar, and a friend comes to sit down beside me and she must have had a glance at the calendar and says I don’t know how you keep up with three.   Keeping up with them…that’s the easy part, it’s keeping up with me that has me stumped at times, but I’m working on it.

So, with all of this paddling like hell underneath, we all (no matter the size of your taxi if any taxi at all) need that time for ourselves.  Don’t get bogged down in the mush next to the shore, just gracefully climb over it and sit your fluffy tail down for a bit to reflect on what you have accomplished, not what’s left to get done.  You’ll get’er done eventually.