Mom Of The Year Award

I just won the Mom of the Year Award 

NOT!!

Even though I know I can't be I try really hard to be Super Mom. I try to be EXTRA patient, loving and understanding with my kids. Over the years I've learned that there is more to life than a perfect, nothing out of it's place home. I try to put my kids first and MY wants second. I saw a quote many years ago that talked about what kids will remember from childhood. Do I as a mom want my kids to remember the mom that was always cleaning or the mom that made fun times; playing with lego's, coloring together, baking in the kitchen and blowing bubbles. 

I'm not Super Mom and I made a mistake last week. One that I feel really, really guilty about.

After our Blue and Gold Banquet last Tuesday it was basically left up to my kids and I to do the clean up with a few extra hands. Kory was working out of town and he was definitely being missed. In my defense, I get one, I was beyond tired. I had had sick kids for almost a week and had been woken up numerous times with them each and every night. That particular day both Hunter and Brayden had stayed home due to the flu bug that just wouldn't go. I was planning on having help with the set-up and decorating earlier that day that "no showed". After the big event my "helper" went home because she had little kids that needed to go to bed. Apparently her 11 kids the oldest being 19 and youngest being 1 are littler than my 5 kids ranging in ages of 1-10! To say I was mad and upset and let's not forget tired was an understatement! 

I asked Hunter to vacuum the floors when we got all the tables and chairs put away. He was using our church's heavy duty vacuum that once started runs on its own and you just guide it. 

Some of the kids that were suppose to go home and get to bed missed the memo and were still at the church even though Mom and the baby had walked home. These kids drive me CRAZY!! They think it's funny to jump in front of whom ever is vacuuming and then jump out of the way. They appeared to be having so much fun that my four year old, Brayden joined in on the fun. It didn't matter that Hunter had asked them to stop numerous times. I had also told these boys numerous times to stop but like usual they ignored me too. I walked out of the room to put something away and came back to a screaming Kylie, because I left her for the up-teenth time, and a crying uncontrollably Brayden. I was tired, remember? All I wanted was to go home and get everyone to bed. I knew Brayden had hurt his foot and Hunter told me he had run over it with the vacuum because he hadn't jumped out of the way fast enough. I told him it served him right. He had just heard me tell the other boys to quit jumping in front of Hunter. I really didn't think it was that bad! After Brayden crying for what seemed like forever and Kylie screaming for me I took both out to the foyer and put them on the couch to cry it out while the bigger kids and I finished. 

Walking out to the car with a load of stuff I took the time to look at Brayden's foot. His big toenail, NOT toe was purplish/blue and I really thought it was finger nail polish. The girls had painted their toenail earlier that week what looked like the same color. I didn't see anything wrong. I kept telling him that he was fine, to stop crying, he's just tired and still feeling sick! We finally got the church cleaned and headed home. Brayden and Kylie cried/screamed the ENTIRE way home. I was seriously ready to go drown myself. 

When we got home Brayden was still crying uncontrollably and didn't want to go to bed because his toe hurt. Super Mom here spanked his little butt all the way up the stairs and told him to go to bed anyways that he was just fine!

The next day I noticed immediately that he came down the stairs limping. When asked why he told me his toe still hurt. After looking at it more calmly that morning I realized his toe nail wasn't painted but in fact bruised. I felt TERRIBLE! He really had been hurt and I was too busy/tired to see it. It has stayed purple/blue all week long. Several extended family member's commented on it this past weekend. It looked so bad. This morning I decided to take a picture of it and it's not blue anymore. His toenail cracked near the bottom and released a lot of blood. His sock he had worn during the night had a rather large blood stain. He's not limping anymore either. This is what his toe looks like. I really hope his toe nail doesn't fall off but.... it probably will. 

I did learn a lesson from all this. Next time something like this happens. I'm going home! I'm not going to spend more than an hour cleaning up by myself with my tired, sick kids. The church could have waited till the the next morning to be cleaned. Something I'm sure doesn't happen often but wouldn't have mattered. I know the older boys enjoyed playing basketball in the gym that night but it wasn't a planned event. They could have found something else to do that night.