Exciting episodes of your family adventure
Recently I enjoyed a girls' night out with a good friend.
After a yummy dinner and rejuvenating conversation, I drove home feeling renewed. (I also took home a doggie bag with an extra entree I bought to surprise my husband.)
It was late, and I happily anticipated returning to a peaceful home.
As I walked in the door, I heard the thunder of six children's footsteps and the cries of "MOMMMMM'S HOME!"
I found my husband comforting my sobbing 9-year-old daughter. Shaking, she turned to me and said, "I SWALLOWED A DIME!"
My 10-year-old limped up to me, squinted one puffy eye, and recounted how he sustained his injuries while wrestling with his brother.
I asked my older son to put the doggie bag in the fridge and then spent the next hour and a half calming the troops and attempting to get everyone to bed.
The next morning I woke to find the doggie bag sitting on the counter instead of in the fridge. Fifty bucks' worth of food down the drain.
Ahh, our family adventure.
Over the years I've learned it's a waste of energy to get frustrated by evenings — or mornings, midmornings, afternoons — like this.
Mainly because this is exactly what makes family life so fabulously family.
In her book "All Rain, No Mud," Sharon Larsen shares the following experience:
"One night our boy was angry with us and used airplane glue to seal my husband, Ralph, and me in our upstairs bedroom. He glued the door frame to the door and filled the hole in the doorknob with glue.
"Ralph was eyeing our clothes chute. It opened in our room and also out into the hall. It was about 12 inches by 18 inches. Smaller than Ralph. Do you remember the story of Winnie the Pooh (getting stuck) in Rabbit's hole? That was Ralph, trying to wriggle his body through our clothes chute to get into the hall. He finally made it. We were no longer captive."
These annoyances are all part of the family experience that you will laugh over at family reunions for years to come.
We have a child, well, at least one, that we know without whom our family life would be boring.
We know this because when he is gone the house is generally quiet and the other kids do what needs to be done without a hitch.
But without him, what's the point of being parents? I would sit with my friends and say, "I know, my children are so stressful. They do what they're told, are in bed when asked, and bring me breakfast on Saturdays."
I would be shunned by my peers.
This week will likely hold new "adventures" for you, and my encouragement is to remember that you're living the very thing now that you will miss most terribly later.
A few days ago the snow melted and we could see the carnage: a mud-covered garage door where a son tried to make homemade "clay"; Dad's good golf clubs — beheaded (they were used for batting practice); and an attempted homemade battery propulsion/explosive device that melted assorted and unidentifiable items.
A short while after surveying the scene, we heard a low but piercing thwack, then silence.
We soon discovered that one of our sons (guess which one) had decided to play baseball in the garage next to the 2009 Subaru.
After our son called the dealership for parts and waved goodbye to $260 from his account, I simply had to smile and say, "Ahh, our family adventure."
e-mail: lifechange@rfburst.com
Recent comments
"One night our boy was angry with us and used airplane glue to seal...
Anonymous | May 10, 2009 at 8:25 p.m.
- Soccer MVPs know how to win 1:56 a.m.
- Alta's Ohai is Ms. Soccer 2009 1:56 a.m.
- High school soccer: Past MVPs 1:37 a.m.
- Senators want food tax restored 1:27 a.m.
- Utah women lag in higher education 1:16 a.m.
- Hatch empathizes with Muslims 1:14 a.m.
- Matheson gets no thanks from GOP 1:13 a.m.
- Mitchell seeks to block witnesses 1:12 a.m.
- Party insiders may take on Bennett 1:11 a.m.
- Input sought on nondiscrimination 1:11 a.m.
- TCU showdown has big implications
- Seniors helped BYU regroup
- Bystanders framed for child porn
- Lambert surprisingly tops news
- Soccer MVPs know how to win
- Hope for single moms
- Matheson gets no thanks from GOP
- Utah Jazz Extra: Whose hot/not
- Korver and Miles to be evaluated
- Mitchell seeks to block witnesses
- House passes health care bill
230 - TCU showdown has big implications
183 - Lobo suspended
182 - Cougars crush hapless Cowboys
154 - Utah Jazz fall apart against Kings
131 - TCU 4th in AP poll; U. 16th, Y. 22nd
118 - Thousands protest health bill
115 - RSL rallies to advance
103 - No 'backlash' for pioneers, gays analogy
97 - Utes pound winless Lobos
89
Meghan McCain, the daughter of former presidential candidate John...
Why do so many people live so close to refineries in Utah and elsewhere?
It seems to me that the coogie zoobies were making these same comments last...
People are on the wrong track in selecting representatives. How nice they are...
Utah gets a bid over Boise State? Utah's one loss is to Oregon who Boise...
Would you also send that same message to the 45,000 Americans that die every...
Maybe Miles can get back in time to replace the rest of the team. More...
Everyone is missing the point and nobody is looking beyond the problem. ...
It has always been my opinion that public education is used as, and treated...
It's all about choices and priorities people place on their lives. We ask...
There is no evidence that BYU fans egged his car. It makes for a...
It's interesting that the average score for Utah and BYU against common...


