Red Lips,
Mom Hips
& Coffee Sips

My daughters bring a lot of joy into my life as a Mom. They love me unconditionally and make me laugh and are generally growing up to be sweet and kind little ladies. There are moments when they absolutely suck the joy out of parenting and those moments are almost consistently centered around getting them out of the house for school. The process should be simple. The school provides a "Breakfast Club" so I don't even have to make breakfast for the little angels. All they need to do is wake up, get dressed, brush their teeth and hair and retrieve the lunch that I made with so much love from my "yet to have my coffee" hands and gather their backpacks and walk out the door.  

The process becomes anything but simple and my kids will throw any and all roadblocks at me in the golden hour of their 7:30am wake up to their 8:20am departure. Less than an hour at that! It is during this fifty minutes that permission forms are thrown at me to "quickly sign because it's due today!" and fits are thrown because I veto an outfit that is more meant for the beach than a chilly Fall day. It is during this fifty minutes that I am told that I am a mean Mom or I love one kid more than the other.

We have tried making lists of the morning process to help get them out the door smoothly. We have attempted to make lunches the night before. I have encouraged the girls to pick out their clothes the night before to save some time in the morning. The night before prep work has honestly been tried and I just hate continuing to fail at making it a more consistent habit. I am not yet giving up on these ideas either. Even if the girls get up relatively well and get their bags packed for school....that is when they decide to take forever to put their shoes on and physically exit the building.

Izzy, my eleven year old, made a list that made me laugh. Items number 1-6 are fairly straightforward. And number 7: GET OUT BEFORE IT GETS UGLY!!! Oh how accurate you are! It can get really ugly. Some days there are tears. Tears from me and the girls. Some days there is yelling. Yelling from me and the girls.

But...No matter how ugly it does get, one rule I have always lived by is that there is always a hug and a kiss and an 'I love you'. And the promise to try better the next morning. Only sometimes do I spike my coffee once that door finally closes and they are on the other side of it walking to school.

This Mama thing is easily the hardest job in the world. With the lowest pay possible. But the benefits?? Of raising my two future best friends for life? They really are priceless.

Don't even get me started on bedtime struggles. That is a whole new post!

Brooke