Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

We’ve all heard of Murphy’s Law and I even once wrote about how it directly affects moms. Well I’m just going to go and name things I think fall under Mom law; things that happen, or seem to happen, to mostly us moms. My favorite is when you get a baby ready in a snowsuit and are walking to the car when they poop up to their necks.

Last week I took some time off from work to have a break and get some projects done. Well, I ended up with barely enough time to take a shower. Little Brother became sick with this crazy weather. It’s spring! It’s winter! It’s spring again! The only time off was for Little Brother. That boy is a trouper though. No matter how sick he is he rarely complains. So back to Mom Law.

Obviously my planned time off was a great opportunity to take care of my youngest, who loved everyday of it. I had one day in particular that anything that could go wrong or happen, did. And I kept brushing all these little things off. It wasn’t until the end of the day I realized what a battle everything was! The night before I set the alarm for 6am to be ready in time to get Big Brother to the bus. As I lay down to go to sleep I found Little brother burning up. We checked his temperature and it was over 103. We spent the night at the hospital but thankfully made it home while it was still dark out. Little brother had ear infections along with his cold. So there I was, finally lying back down in my bed. Just as I felt myself falling into sweet sleep my 6am alarm went off. Big Brother was lucky his socks matched when he left the house. I did not drive him to the bus stop my husband did. When Little Brother and I woke up later that morning I had five missed calls! The last one actually woke us up. Big Brother had left his book bag at home. The school wasn’t calling because of missed homework but because there was a permission slip in that book bag that had to be turned in before lunch. As I raced to get myself ready and out of the house I seemed to have lost everything in the three hours of sleep I had. I couldn’t find my car keys. Found them. Then I noticed Little Brother only had one boot! I found it in the yard. It must have fell off while I was carrying him. I had him holding onto my hand tight as we made our way across our icy and waterlogged yard. The piece of ice I was standing on broke! I fell to my knees in over a foot of water that smelled like cow poop. I was still hanging onto Little Brother’s hand. He had this look on his face that made me laugh. He didn’t know if he should laugh or not. When I said, “I’m okay son” I was met with Little Brother’s belly laughter. I told him I’ll put you in the car and then I have to run in the house to change. As I strapped him into his car seat I noticed that it was wet. The water bottle I had given him to sip on the night before had spilled. I brought the poor kid back into the house to change his now wet clothes. All you can do is laugh right? Ready for the second time and out the door again. As we were walking out the front door I remembered I had left my keys on the counter. I turned the doorknob and found it locked. Little Brother said, “I locked the door mama! Me help you!” All I could say was you sure did kid. That’s what I’m talking about, total Mom Law. As out of shape as I think I am, I still have the ability to scale the outside of my house and crawl through a teeny window. I took Little Brother a different way across the yard in hope of not getting wet or muddy. Again I found it was a bad idea when I slipped and the gross mud splashed all over my jeans. It was a just go moment. By the time we were actually in our car pulling out of the driveway dressed, redressed with some breaking and entering under our belt, we had five minutes to get to the school. When I got the permission slip in I found out that I actually had until the end of the school day. But hey, who knows what else could have happened in an extra two hours? Anything that could happen, did. I was waiting for someone to say they smelled farm but no one did. Maybe all the people whose paths I crossed that day have cow-poop-smelling mud too! That was just one day of my “break,” the rest of the week pretty much kept turning things up a notch. Some moms are at the mercy of this morphed version of Murphy’s Law that I call Mom Law.