A Full Bowl of Cereal and 8 Spoons

Today started off pretty normal. The kids had a hard time getting out of bed. There was the usual "discussions" (OK, Arguments) during breakfast. I was really good to ignore them--I didn't laugh or get riled or anything. Even when one time I walked through the kitchen and Iv said, "Mom, isn't that a new spoon on the counter because I told Et it was but he says it isn't and I know I'm right..." It leads off because I left the room. The next time I came in Iv said, "Mom, Et makes me so mad! He says that this is not a big spoon but I know it...." The next time it was Et, "Mom! Iv is driving me crazy! She won't stop looking at me!" You get the picture. This was, of course, after I lost my cool. And yelled. Which is a little unusual in the mornings because I love the mornings. But really. The boy wouldn't get dressed for school. Or get out of bed. And when he did get out of bed and get dressed he put on pants that had dirt on them. So I told him to change, because I had washed some for him and he refused. And I lost it! BECAUSE yesterday he claimed to have no pants and I told him that you CAN wear pants more than one day in between washings if nothing is on them and he freaked out and refused and finally found a pair in his drawer that he never wears which he decided would be preferable to wearing some he had already worn. Feeling repentant, I woke up at 5:00 AM to make sure the boy had some clean pants today and they were washed and dried when he woke up and then the boy refused to wear them. (OK--so maybe Et was feeling repentant too, but at the moment I didn't care) I said, "LOOK ET, I know I said that you can wear pants more than one day but those are obviously DIRTY and I got up at 5:00 AM so you would have clean pants because yesterday you refused! SO WEAR THE CLEAN PANTS!! He did.

What does this have to do with the bowl of cereal and spoons? I'm getting there. It was shortly after breakfast that I realized that I have training trek. TODAY. And I don't have all my stuff and haven't started packing. So after I dropped the kids off at school I ran to the store to pick up the last few things we needed. (Training Trek is for Mas and Pas (Vince and I are Mas and Pas this year) for a pioneer reenactment and so we have to go camp out tonight in all our pioneer stuff.) The shopping excursion was fraught with angst because N was playing with a rubber band and got his eye and then cried almost the whole time that he wanted to go home, but we couldn't until I was finished. I did feel bad later when I saw his eye lid swelling--yes, he gave himself a little black eye with a rubber band. When I got home from the store I realized that we had forgotten to put the garbage cans on the street so I went to get them and discovered that only one of them was half full and the other was empty. Yes, this is some kind of record. So I decided to clean out some of the garage. I mean really, empty garbage cans? No one here to see what I put in the garbage cans? TRUE OPPORTUNITY!! Also, because of the Training Trek hubby will be too preoccupied to say or think much more than wow, the garage looks better! If he even says that much. So I spent the next hour or so filling the garbage cans from the garage--I did a good job. They are very full and I'm hoping I can do more next week!

Now to the point. When I finished I walked in the kitchen and found a bowl full of cereal, milk, and 8 spoons. And my first reaction was exasperation. And then I thought, what a blessing! Of course the cereal and milk was a complete loss and who in the world has enough spoons to use eight per person, right? But the truth is:
1. He did get himself something to eat without hounding me.
2. I did just buy more cheap spoons 2 days ago because it seemed we were always running out.
3. And this is the most important! It was ONLY ONE bowl of cereal!!!! I mean what's the big problem about one bowl of cereal? The truth is this is major progress at our house. I still remember when I would be busy with something and come in to find AT LEAST one entire bag on the floor (not bagged) and/or in several cereal bowls, with every spoon I own, some of the cereal on the floor would be wet and soggy and some would be dry, some would be tracked into the living room carpet which would make me furious, milk would be spilled everywhere... And to top it off they would have gotten bored with cereal and milk and started in on the peanut butter which would have most of our knives sticking out of it. Yes, they really dip and lick with several utensils at a time.

So I didn't say one word about the bowl of cereal and eight spoons because I am in HEAVEN contemplating the progress!!