Lindsay's Tree

Today was the first day of summer break for my daughter.  She has been out of school for three days, but today was the first day she and I had to be alone together.  Our day was anything but routine.

I started out the day planning all the wonderful things we could do. In my head, we would eat a breakfast of scrambled eggs and grilled asparagus, and sip on fresh tomato juice. Afterwards, we would put our tennis shoes, go for a stroll through the neighborhood, listen to the birds sing, and pick flowers. Once we returned home, we would do a little gardening, play some "go fish", and then have a nice lunch on the patio.

But scratch all that. Here's what actually happened:

My daughter and I returned home from dropping my husband off at work. Upon arriving home, my daughter went straight to her room, and I headed downstairs to the kitchen. At this point, I still have images dancing in my head of the scrambled egg breakfast. But as I get to the kitchen, I see syrup from yesterday's breakfast congealed onto the breakfast table. Next, I open the microwave to clean the inside of the door and notice something has exploded all over the interior of the unit.  I quickly apply some elbow grease to clean it up. Next up: mopping the floor. At this point I am on my hands and knees cleaning the floor when in walks the child. "I'm hungry", she exclaims.  "As soon as I am done cleaning the kitchen, you may eat breakfast." The kid storms out of the kitchen but not before mouthing off a few choice words to me, the mean old mom.  Yeah, the one who still has delusional thoughts that we will have that nice breakfast, followed by the stroll, followed by the nice lunch on the patio.

Three timeouts later, my daughter decides to return to a somewhat civilized frame of mind, and becomes enjoyable to be around.  She takes her three timeouts, and as a reward, I make her a late morning snack. I envisioned her only eating part of it, and saving the rest for lunch, but she ate the whole thing; and then ate again at lunchtime.

My daughter was content on spending the entire day in her room, covered to her neck in blankets, window curtains closed. But I refused to let her waste away such a beautiful day on self-pity.  So I got her up, got her dressed, and took her shopping.  Three trips to Navlets, one trip to Costco, two trips to Target, and one itty bitty stop at Wendy's for an iced tea and orange soda, and we were back in business.  This new, over-indulged kid was fun, vibrant, and full of piss and vinegar!

And that my friends, is how you turn a totally suck ass day into one only a mom could be proud of.

Stay tuned for more stories from Lindsay's Tree.

~Lindsay