Peace, yo.

If you follow my blog at all, you might remember a few posts back when I mentioned the "Fruits of the Spirit" theme we have going on every month.  February was Love (that one was easy!), March was Joy (still working on that one), and April is Peace.  You might also remember my latest post which shows that very little in our house right now is Peaceful.  Three years, eight months is tough, y'all.

In fact, have there been peaceful moments around here in the past few years? 

Ok.  Maybe one.

Alright, two.

More often than not (and especially in the past fourteen-and-one-half-months), our house is chaos.  AND....tonight was no different (I'm not even going to comment on today's antics that included Tanner's on-the-floor crying fit at gymnastics and a shrill-screaming meltdown because Ellery picked out the naptime book). 

After naptime today, Tanner and I decided to decorate our bulliten board for our month of (supposed) "Peace."  Tanner likes to cut and color while I cut and decorate - so I printed off peace signs and peace doves for her to mess with.  Soon, however, it was time to get dinner rolling.  While I started that mess, Tanner continued with her mess.

My plan for dinner tonight was something I made up in my head (I do that alot, I'm only a recipe girl about 50% of the time), and it involved tofu (stop gagging, it's actually really good).  I went to the fridge, got out my tofu, and opened it.  Somewhere in there I got distracted by something (surely not that 3-year-old), and when I came back to making dinner I remembered those potatoes in the bottom of the pantry that I needed to use, like, yesterday.  Pot of water on to boil, potatoes cut up, mashed potatoes are in our future.

Then I remembered....the tofu.  Crap.  My brilliant Tofu Penne Rosa Lasagna doesn't go well with mashed potatoes, and by the time I realized up from down I was kinda too far in with both dishes to stop either one.  Tanner, of course, would hear NOTHING of not having mashed potatoes tonight....so on I trudged with this cluster that is now dinner preparation.  In a moment of brilliance I put the lasagna noodles in with the potatoes and started slicing and dicing.  Knives are chopping, mincers are mincing, pans are frying - no worries, I can handle motherhood and two completely incompatible dishes.

Then Ellery wakes up.  What a wild card move.

The dinner-making experience just got better - water boiled over (of course - a starchy mess that my cooktop is not unfamiliar with); I forgot to get eggs today at the store to "bind" the cottage cheese and lasagna (it was on my grocery list but I didn't get it - nevermind that I did get Fruit Loops, definitely NOT on my list); and now Ellery is into the arts and craft adventure from earlier.  In between stirring and adding ingredients I try to corral the girls - tell Tanner to get the scissors from Ellery, tell Ellery to stop eating paper - ya know, those kinds of things. 

Once dinner is in the oven, I start to tidy up the absolute destructiveness I've made in the kitchen - including the mess my kids have made in the kitchen while my attention was away from them.  As I start to lose my patience (the next Fruit of the Spirit, mind you) over bits of cut paper on the floor and crayons everywhere, I find myself facing a first (but surely not a last):  I have to scrub crayons off the floor.  Are.  You.  Kidding.  Me.  I can't say I was surprised, just irritated.  And if you're curious, Clorox disenfecting wipes work like a dream to take crayon off of textured linoleum floors.

As I'm scrubbing up (with Tanner's help, of course), Ellery comes toddling over to offer her assistance.

Me:  Oh, Ellery!  It looks like you ate a crayon!  Did you eat a brown crayon?
(Ellery's answer to EVERYTHING is "uh-uh.")

Tanner:  No, Mommy.  She just colored with the brown crayon.  She ate the orange crayon.

Me:  WHAT?!?!?!?!   Tanner, you can't let Ellery eat crayons.  You need to tell Mommy if Ellery eats things she's not supposed to.  Eating things she's not supposed to can make her sick!

Tanner (sneer intact):  It was just a little crayon, Mommy.

Oh.  Well.  THAT's comforting.  O.o

By the time John got home the kitchen was clean(ish) and dinner was ready - he probably still has no idea the chaos that ensued just prior to his arrival.  Let's just say that I had a beer in hand when he walked through the door.

So....I guess we have a ways to go to achieve PEACE.  My notecard guide tells me that "peace [cannot] be defined in terms of the cessation of violence, war, and strife."  Nor the abscence of crayons on your floor, I'd imagine.  However, I think that'd be a good start (I did teach Tanner to give me her bunny ears and say "Peace, Dude."  Also a good start :)

They even have their tie-dye on. 
Maybe peace isn't that far of, after all.  :)

Oh, and in case you're wondering, Tanner was right - Ellery did use the brown crayon to color......her pants (the floor was streaked with orange and blue - not terrible colors, I suppose :)  I'll deal with that chaos during my next adventure (aka laundry.  :) 

SHALOM!