Sunday, June 22, 2008

Recipe for (near) disaster

Begin with: one mommy, already exhausted from a week of shuttling kids back and forth to VBS 45 minutes each way, and with a sick tummy to boot.

Into a minivan with no air conditioning, add 5 kids and all their luggage (and two tomato plants, some marigolds, and possibly a partridge in a pear tree.)

Stir in two hours sitting at nearly a dead stop in traffic, officially making it an 8 1/2 hour road trip.

A wonderful added ingredient here is the sunburned farmers tan that the mommy will get on her left arm from hanging it out the window, desperately trying to catch a breeze.

Yield: one even more exhausted mommy, who is grateful beyond words for...
~ two wonderful, precious, beautiful young ladies (my cousins) that helped me entertain Ben, Lily, and Kate all the way home, and will be staying with us for a few days at least
~ Prince Caspian on CD, and Lynne Redgrave's lovely, calming voice
~ the coincidence (and you know I don't believe in those) of stopping for a bathroom break a mere couple of miles before we hit traffic, and buying the Gatorade that was on sale
~ need I mention ibuprofen and aloe?
~ a wonderful friend who picked up pizza, so that I didn't have to cook
~ and last, but certainly not least, a wonderful husband who brought me an extra strong cup of coffee in bed this morning...yep, he's a keeper!


5 comments:

Missy said...

Lauren, sounds LOVELY! You poor soul. Glad you are all home.

Missy.

Anonymous said...

Oh! You are funny. This sounds like my week approaching. The kids are being shuffled off to VBS all week with neighborhood friends, then we leave for a 14 hour road trip on Friday night - with a husband too exhausted to drive because he's working over time all week to get vacation time! Oh, will I share in your pain soon enough.

So glad you are home safe!

Valerie

Anonymous said...

So great to be able to look at the positive side. I don't believe in coincidences either. Yesterday someone hit my husband's parked car, and then drove off. Only by the grace of God was my husband in a place to be able to get the license plate number just in time. I love how God takes care of the little things.

Nancy M. said...

Oh, how did you survive? No a/c, I would have been quite irritable! How lucky you had help entertaining the kids.

green mom for Jesus said...

You are very funny!
The scene you described made me think of how sometimes as mothers we take a step back and look at things thinking, "am I in a Saturday Night Live skit?!"

Our family just finished listening to Prince Caspian with Lynn Redgrave also. She has an amazing voice for story-telling.

God bless.