Organizing Our Mess

We just had an amazing first meeting! Thank you to all who attended and made our time joyous.

For those of you who missed us, here's a quick recap of the morning: we mingled & got to know each other through a fun game involving lots of pink yarn J, we found out our table assignments for the year, enjoyed a lovely hot breakfast and caught up with one another (it’s been a long summer!).

One of the elements of our meeting this year will be something we’re calling “Messy Moments.” These are short stories we can share with one another regarding the literal messiness of our lives as mothers. Today, our steering committee members shared quick “Messy Moments.” Here are a couple put down in writing:

About a month ago, I was preparing a meal for some of our friends as they were coming over.  I had the baby with me, and my 3 boys were in the backyard playing.  They are ages 6, 3, and 1.  our youngest boy Lincoln had decided to pull his diaper off on the back deck and actually had diarrhea and pooped on the back deck, down the steps, and into the rocks!  I was so frazzled because I was trying to cook dinner, and now I had to give him a bath while the baby was already crabby.  So after I finally got him all bathed and was ready to go outside to clean up the poop, I found my oldest son being a really "good" helper.  He had decided to help me, by taking the hose and spraying off the poop....so I'm not exactly sure where all the poop went, but it's probably somewhere in the rocks haha! – Heather Erickson

I wrote this as I was tending to sick kiddos and trying to manage all of the extra work involved with that. It reminded me of a very literal “messy moment” in my parental career that involved my oldest who was then 4 ½ years old and my then 3 year old.  My youngest slept through the whole thing, he was the lucky one. 

My oldest, Luke had never experienced throwing up before and one evening as I was tucking he and his sister in bed (they share a room), he complained about his tummy hurting.  I blew it off as a stall tactic and told him he would feel better after he got some rest.  About 15 mins later as I was finishing up the last few chores I hadn’t gotten to earlier I heard a really horrible noise coming from their room.  I say horrible because I knew exactly what it was and how NOT GOOD this was going to be.  I ran into their room and froze, should I grab a trash can or should I just drag him down from the top bunk and get him to the bathroom where he can finish there??  My indecision cost me precious time and probably more cleanup (I should have grabbed a trash can), but alas it was done. 

His sister, who was on the bottom bunk was soundly asleep, oblivious to the fact that less than 6 inches from her head was something very unpleasant dripping down.  The enormity of this “mess” was beginning to hit me and I just didn’t know where to begin!  Daddy was working late, so I had to start somewhere on my own. 

First thing: get sick kid into bathtub, stripped down, hosed off and jammies quarantined.  I stuck him on the couch in the living room and turned on a movie for him after instructing him on the use of a trash can. Next, got sister out of bed and transferred to my bed, safely out of the way of anymore icky stuff.  Next, I assessed the room.  Quite a lot of damage had ensued!  I decided to start at the top bunk and work my way down when suddenly I heard my son having issues again!  I ran out to check on him and he had gotten it in the trash can!  That was good news because about 2 mins later I heard my daughter crying from my room and when I went back there she was complaining about her tummy hurting.  Great.

Sure enough, soon after I got her set up on the other couch with a trash can, up it all comes.  After comforting and soothing both of them I got back to work stripping beds, checking on kids, cleaning and disinfecting bunk beds, checking on kids, whoops, cleaning trash cans out…  Will this ever end?!?  When, oh when was husband coming home?  I had called him by the way but got no answer, most frustrating thing ever!!

Okay I had to get back to work; the worst damage was the carpet.  Almost a five foot diameter faced me and I barely held it together…. All in all it took a good couple of hours cleaning all the while running and checking on kids who were getting sick every ½ an hour to hour intermittently.  Finally daddy comes home, after the worst is over of course, so I am not exactly thrilled. 

Was this a “messy moment”?  Oh yes, my worst thus far. But on the other side of it I see that we survived, just as I will survive this bout of sickness and it only took a professional carpet cleaner to get that horrible smelly reminder out of that room.  I love my family “messy” and all. - Brandy Patceg

On a less messy note, we had so much fun giving out our fabulous door prizes! Thank you again to all our generous donors!

It was, truly, fantastic to see all you lovely ladies today. We’re looking forward to an awesome year with some great events. Remember to invite your friends!