Thursday, April 16, 2009

Day 1 of being Super Mom and Super Wife

To get a full sense of the irony of this post you should start my reading my previous post first.

After writing down some life goals last night, I was inspired and made sure I thoroughly cleaned the kitchen and living room before going to bed. I started off today with big plans. I would bring my husband lunch, take the girls to the park and make a fabulous dinner. All while keeping a clean house of course. I managed to do some of those things but not the way I wanted to.

As part of my goal to be a better wife, I decided to make a great lunch for my husband at work. I wanted to make a nutritious and delicious lunch for us but realizing that I didn’t have time to make anything fancy I settled for peanut butter sandwiches on multi-grain bread. We were a little late and he didn’t even like his sandwich since there wasn’t enough peanut butter. That’s the last time I ever bother to bring him lunch! But it was still nice to see him during the work day and let the girls see where daddy works.

After that, we drove to a nearby park and met a friend with a daughter the same age as Sweet Pea. We had a fun time and the weather was beautiful. I took some pictures but the camera memory was too full to take very many. I have this fear that if I delete the pictures off my camera my laptop will suddenly die and I’ll lose all my pictures. Before I can safely delete any pictures off my camera I have to upload them to my laptop, upload them to a photo-sharing site online and burn them to a CD. Anyways, although I was feeling like a good mom for getting my kids outside and active I neglected to bring any snacks along. So by the time we left, Princess was complaining about her tummy hurting. We rushed home and got her some yoghurt while I breastfed an exhausted Sweet Pea to sleep. Princess refused to go to sleep but luckily my dad called and came to take her out. I should have cleaned up the mess that had already accumulated but was exhausted from all the playing at the park so I went down for a nap. By the time I woke up, it was time to make dinner. That’s where it all started going downhill.

Princess came home tired from her long day and Sweet Pea was still tired when she woke up. I was in the kitchen trying to make a fabulous dinner when my two normally sweet girls decided to fight over every single toy. I was determined to make something delicious since I’ve already had two dinner mishaps in the last two days. I decided to make Twice-Baked Potatoes and Chicken Skewers with a side of beans. The potatoes took a lot of time and work and I kept having to break up fights between the girls. My husband called twice and we could barely talk over the screaming that was going on. I finally took a break from making dinner to feed Sweet Pea in hopes of getting her to take a nap. Then I searched desperately for a soother for my crying baby. Then I began to cry because the house was so messy that I couldn't even find a soother to put my baby to bed with. I finally found it and put Sweet Pea in her crib. Princess was a little concerned about her bawling mommy and began to cry herself. I then cried even more that I upset my daughter.

My husband came home to Sweet Pea protesting her nap, and Princess and I sitting on the couch in tears. He hadn’t had the best day either and I felt horrible that he came home to a messy house, grumpy children and a stressed-out wife. Realizing that Sweet Pea was not going to nap I got her up and handed her to my husband. With another adult around I was finally able to finish up dinner. I realized that I had forgotten the vegetables but didn’t even care anymore.

Although the twice-baked potatoes turned into a twice-baked casserole it was pretty good. My husband even said he liked the potato chunks that didn’t get completely mashed up. I didn’t quite believe him but didn’t care enough to argue. We had a peaceful dinner for a few minutes before Princess’s exhaustion became evident. My husband quickly whisked her away to bed where she fell asleep immediately. I managed to put away the leftovers before plopping myself on the couch. Sweet Pea resisted going to bed several times and I was forced to call my husband in to put her to bed.

Now I’m sitting here ignoring the chaos around me and rethinking my super mom goal. Taking them out to the park resulted in tired girls (myself included) and instead of being a super wife my husband turned out to be super dad. I managed to do all the things on my list (minus the clean house) but became stressed out as a result. Can I be an active mom who makes delicious meals while keeping a presentable house? Is it really possible to do it all? I’ll keep trying and keep you updated.

Any tips from other supermoms?

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