How Marlee Broke Her Head (almost)

I feel beaten by today. And I'm not the one who fell out of the buggy at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Yes, you read that right. In my defense, this is the first time in five years and three kids. That's pretty good right? Right. 

So, next time I won't wait until the last minute to buy a gift for a bridal shower, nor will I go to BB&B on a Sunday, nor will I ever use their gift wrapping station again. Ever. That's where Marlee took a dive out of the back of the buggy and I instantly broke into tears and a sweat. She is fine, thankfully, and I am mostly recovered as well. Let's just say the box I had started to wrap appeared at the shower an hour later with a ribbon, but no paper and a lid made out of another box. Why do you hide the lids and the big bags that would have solved all my problems?  

And to the nice people who were parked next to me and kindly returned my cart when they saw I was crying too hard to do much else, thank you. And I apologize for getting a little hysterical when you tapped on my window to remind me I hadn't buckled Kaylen in. 

It came to me as I literally stood watching the clock count down until 7p.m. so that I could reasonably put the kids to bed (in spite of Jacob's protest, "the day is still out!"), that perhaps while I've been trying to utilize grace based parenting, I might have gotten things a tad wrong. That maybe what I was calling "grace" was actually just laziness. 

The thing is, if there is no law, there is chaos. And chaos is exactly what we had today. Blatant disrespect, blatant disobedience and blatant defiance. It all happened. Meanwhile, there's me scratching my head wondering why no one listens to me and it's probably because while I've been thinking I've been extending  grace, I've actually been doling out free passes in bad behavior. 

There is a time and place for grace, but for some ages and seasons of life, it gets lost in translation and you end up with a household turned upside down with mom at the bottom of the pecking order. 

Tomorrow we start afresh. We will restart the load in the washer that has now been sitting since yesterday. We will make our beds, throw open the windows and doors and breath deeply of the fresh air. We will sweep the dark corners of their dust and we will put our house back in order. One room at a time.