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