His promise

Yesterday Cameron was sick, so our plans of hanging out at the arboretum was cut. The kids, especially Max, were going stir-crazy all day being stuck inside. But Sara was here helping out, so it really could have been much worse.

Today we had plans to go to meet some friends at a really cool outdoor park with 4 levels of “chutes and ladders.” But Cameron still had a touch of a fever, and Ella looked and sounded horrible, with a raspy cry, constantly running nose and high-pitched screeches, so we had to cancel our plans again.

It was also incredibly dreary and cloudy this morning (and in the afternoon turning into severe thunderstorms).

And Sara was not coming today.

Needless to say, I was NOT looking forward to this day. I could not endure another day of screaming. And I was going to be forced to bring all 3 kids to the store with me because I was out of formula and diapers. My husband left for work this morning, with me sitting on the couch, looking like the world was going to end.

But it didn’t.

We went to Wal-mart, and the kids were miraculously good. I managed to snag one of those carts where 2 kids can sit facing each other in the front. Max and Cameron never did this before, so the novelty of it was exciting. They actually just sat still and cooperated. Not wanting to return home where major destruction would occur, I literally just carted them through the aisles of Wal-mart, as Max screamed out every item he recognized, or yelled, “Those?” wanting to know the names of everything he couldn’t recall a word for. They were loud, but they were good. We probably spent about an hour in the store, just wandering.

And on the way home Max fell asleep, so I didn’t have to do the bedtime battle to get him to take a nap. As a matter of fact, all 3 kids ended up napping at the same time. Which of course meant that I could catch some extra sleep myself. After an hour and a half, I woke up, and they were all still asleep. I actually had about 20 minutes of pure peace to myself. It was wonderful.

When the kiddos did wake up, the boys played so nicely with play-dough….making a mess, but a confined mess. And except for when Max fell off his chair, there were no screams to be heard. Max even made a little man, held him up to me and said clear as day, “Robot!”

Except for Ella’s sickly, teething crankiness, the rest of the day went nice and smoothly. Even bedtime was not a fight. And I was fortunate enough to capture this picture after the storm.

The Lord gave me well-behaved kids today, and the strength and patience to nurture all 3 of them. Prayers are answered.

Either that…or my Zoloft just kicked into high gear!