Emotional roller coasters

Dear Young Mom,

Do your emotions get a work-out pretty much every day?  There is something about being a mom that brings this to a whole new level!

Here is something I wrote years ago when my kids were little:

What Do You Do When....

.... when you're already pretty ornery because the kids have been screaming and provoking each other all afternoon, and it's too rainy to send them outside.  Then you have a very frustrating dinner-making time because your husband is working all night and the kids are all hovering around the kitchen like helicopters seeking to destroy everything within reach with their rotor blades and you have to say, "no" or "stop" 532 times during the process...

.... and then you finally get dinner on the table, after explaining to your daughter for 153rd time that the placemats are supposed to match each other when she sets the table, and you all sit down to eat, and just as your 1-year old son starts his familiar refrain of "don't like beans, mama! don't like beans, mama! don't like beans, mama!" your daughter picks up her soft-shell taco and immediately drops all of the contents therein onto the floor? What do you do?

And then you look down and realize there are now numerous pieces of ground turkey, tomatoes, black beans, onions and cheese, all quickly being absorbed into the rug below the table.... what do you do? You figure vacumming or dust-busting will be gross, right? So you get the trash can and go down on your hands and knees to pick up every little piece? What do you say?

I won't repeat all of what I chose to say.... But I will summarize by saying that the theme of it was largely that all 3 of them were going to go to bed very early tonight.

But then what do you do when in the midst of your fuming and raving (assuming you're anything like me), your daughter starts saying in a very quiet, sweet voice, "I'm so sorry, Mommy. I'm sorry." And when you acknowledge that you hear her, she says, "I forgive you, Mama. I forgive you." What do you do?

And then when she gets sent to the other room to wait so she'll stop stepping on all the food particles while you get a spray bottle out, and you hear her amusing herself by repeating "... And the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (part of the verse she learned in class today), what do you think?

And then when your older son comes and gives you his last special piece of chocolate afterwards, and you realize it's because he feels bad that you were so angry (assuming you're anything like me), what do you do?

And then what do you do when you try to thank him and kindly offer it back, and he says, "But wouldn't this mean I don't have to go bed early tonight after all??" and you realize it was actually just a bribe?

Ah, motherhood. So many emotions in even a simple taco dinner.
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I remember, young mom, that the days were intense -- and they still are!  The Holy Spirit is whispering to us in them all, using the moments to not just teach our children, but us as well.  Praise Him!