Morning Rush Hour

Before we had kids my mornings were so peaceful.  I would wake about 6:00 a.m. and get ready for the day, kiss Stacey goodbye while waking him up about 6:30 and head off to work.  So quite, so peaceful, and just very calm.  Fast forward five years and my days of peace and calm are out the door! So why should I be surprised that I walked out in black pants with brown shoes yesterday?

 Mornings are hard for some people, but it is no surprise why the most stressful part of my day is 5:30-6:45 in the morning.  I get up early just to have 30 minutes of peace to start my day, that is when Ella does not get up with my alarm to chat me up for 30 minutes before anyone else gets out of bed.  Then there is the struggle to get Stacey and Grace to actually get out of bed and get moving for the day.  Add in the morning rush to get everyone dressed, ready, and out the door on time and you would be amazed that we are never really late.  Throw in a few fussy girls some days, a husband who likes to egg them on, and you have a typical morning at the Smith House.  "I don't want to wear those pants," Ella will say.  "But my show is not over yet," can be heard from Grace.  "Girls I am getting ready to go and I will leave you home," chimes in Stacey. 

When the girls were just babies I stopped wear jewelry because as I was feeding them they would choke me while playing with it.  On the positive, four years later I feel like I just got a bunch of new jewelry since it has not seen the light of day in so long.  I have been to work with spit-up on my clothes (yeah that is fun to arrive and realize that, why could I not have noticed before leaving the house so that I could change).  There has been toothpaste on the back of my pants from the hug I got before walking out the door (any mom knows what I am talking about here).  One look and you know I am a working mom.  Given my career, I always have a suit at work and prior to the girls never had a need to use it.  Now, I use that black suit jacket more then any other piece of clothes I own.  As I was finishing writing this, I even looked down to see the peanut butter on my shirt from making the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches this morning and now have the peanut butter and jelly song in my head (thanks Grace for that one). 

So next time you see a woman who is not 100% put together, just realize that she most likely has kids and home and just performed a miracle to get them out the door and where everyone needed to be.  In fact, you might be witness to the miracle that she is dressed at all.  Despite the hectic mornings, the not 100% good looks each day, and the morning rush hour that starts before the cars, I would not give up the morning hugs and kisses and the sweet wave good bye for anything.