The Reason I take my kids out in public

Today I had an epiphany. It was sometime during my trip to Kohl's with my three kids, that I realized the reason I take them out in public........to give me material to blog about.

My day started off normally, I dropped Aubrey & Ella off at school and headed to the grocery store. I had stayed up until 11pm the night before carefully making a shopping list. When I arrived at the store I had to use the bathroom, so Ryan and I walked all the way to the opposite corner of the store to the restroom. Then I realized I didn't have my grocery list, so all the way back to the car we go. No list to be found, so I decided to wing it and just get the damn groceries.

Ryan and I get home and unload groceries, but one of my bags has a leak. It was one of the boxes of vegetable broth, there was a small puncture hole, and it was leaking everywhere. So back to the store we go to get another one.........ugh! Then it's off to pick Ella up from Preschool. Then there is the usual, lunch, naps, laundry, all the things that remind me that "I'm living the dream". Then back to pick up Aubrey from school.

Since I wanted to get an outfit for my husbands Change of Command ceremony next week, I decide to just go for it and make a quick stop at Kohl's. I had a talk with all three kids before we even went into the store. I warned them that they had to behave because it was a nice store and "not Chuckie Cheese". Sometime during this "shopping experience" I realized I had made a big mistake.

I took away TV, and told them bedtime was to be at 7, and none of this stopped the screaming, bickering, climbing on the floor, well you get the idea. I'm sure I am the best ad for birth control that there is when I am out in public with my kids. Many of the women were glaring at me like I needed a visit from Supernanny, and tonight I have to agree!

Once we got home I realized that the sales lady forgot to take off the security tag that will spray ink all over my new blouse if I tamper with it.........so back to the torture chamber I go again tomorrow!

I did take away TV and the attached video is how creative they were without it. And I also had my oldest write 25 sentences when he got home stating that he would not act up in a store again! Ella had to go to her room, and they all went to bed at 7PM! No joke!

The last two months

Oh Blog how I've missed you. It has been so long since I've written. I guess that's just the cold hard reality of being an Army wife and mother of three. My husband was at yet, another "Army School" for 8 weeks. One would think that I would really need to blog during that period of time, but atlas I was so exhausted from the daily routine, school drop off/pickups, doctor appointments, snow days, home repairs dinner, bath, & bedtime, that there was really no energy left to write.

I'm sure I've missed many blogging opportunities during that 8 week period, like when my oldest son Aubrey threw himself on the lawn outside my parents house screaming about something that wasn't fair, and when I tried to grab his arm and guide him into the car, and he then screamed at the top of his lungs that I was hurting him. I'm sure all the neighbors had their hand on their phones to call 911.

Ella (4) had a few moments of drama herself. If I asked her to pick up her toys, shoes, or clothes, she would proclaim (hand on hip), "why do I have to do everything?", to which I would reply "that's why I had so many kids, to do everything"!

My baby Ryan, now 2 1/2 is regularly cracking me up, but also regularly having all out stomping, screaming fits. He doesn't discriminate between home, and say the grocery store. If he wants to throw a fit, he's going to throw it. He now quotes his older brother and says "one more chance mommy". It's so darn cute but also so hard when the 2 year old says 8 year old things.

Yes, there were many lost blogging opportunities, but one thing is for sure. It's really hard to be the mom and dad and have some sense of normalcy. The kids really miss Wyatt when he is gone, but they are handling it like troopers. I have to acknowledge that they miss their dad, but also not let them use that as an excuse to get away with bad behavior.....a very tight rope to walk.

Through the good and the bad, I'm so very thankful for them. They make me laugh, they make me cry,they make me crazy and they drive me to drink, but mostly they make me smile! So here's to another week without the husband.........we can do it!
Go Army!