Life With Kids

We have a lot of friends who don't have any children yet. They often ask me what our day is like. Well, that's a hard thing to explain to someone without kids. Anyone who has children or works with children knows that life with kids is like riding a constant rollercoaster of emotion and activities. No two days are exactly the same. Today's spilled milk won't be spilled in the same location as yesterday's and today's spilled milk will include soggy cheerios. The thing that consumed all of your attention yesterday won't be the thing that consumed all of your attention today but you'll probably still be dealing with yesterday's dilema. You get accustomed to giving up on getting a whole list of chores completed. I have a general list that I hope to get done by the end of the week and then on Saturday when none of it's done it becomes my list for next week. While you may not get your list done, life with children is rarely boring. Sometimes you end up doing the most bizarre things.

For example, the other night I found myself crawling around on my hands and knees searching for a hermit crab. We have three hermit crabs. Three kids, three hermit crabs. Occasionally the crabs use their claws to break out. We have had one make it all the way down the stairs before anyone realized he was out. The other night I was waiting on the girls to get settled into bed and decided to take a peek in the cage to make sure all was well. I only saw two crabs. I dug through the sand and still only two crabs. This led to the hands and knees search for a hermit crab. It had been about thirty minutes, with all three girls crawling around looking under toys and behind shelves, when Chris walked in. I asked him to help us find the lost hermit crab. It took him about thirty seconds to find it.

It was in the cage.

It was curled up in the corner, right there among the extra shells. I had just missed it completely.

That is what life with kids is like. You waste a lot of time, are occasionally very frustrated, and slowly lose your mind. It's a good thing they're so cute.