Friday, April 26, 2013

Full Disclosure- Part 2

When little Miriam was born, I got to spend two enjoyable weeks with Shanna and family. I was in Nana heaven with a fun little two year old and a sweet little newborn to love on. It was also so fun to spend the day with Shanna and, for a week of that time, Siara too. It's the great blessing of motherhood to get to the point where your children become your friends. We discussed matters great and small and swapped recipes and helpful hints. Sometimes we were reduced to giggling like little girls when something struck us especially funny. Siara cut our hair and styled it for us and we did our nails and tried each others' makeup. Luckily for Austin, he was at work for most of that time.

Seeing Shanna with her little ones, and reassuring her that she would figure out how to handle the doubling of her motherly responsibilities, reminded me of my promise of more "posts from the trenches"...


So here is another Day in the Life of Mama Gale, word for word, from my journal:

For this episode, I was the mother of six little darlins.
The baby in this entry is played by Shayla.
9-26-94 (Mon.)
"I ran errands this morning. Let me elaborate:
Scott had a science project to get to school--something involving one of my baking sheets, rocks, dirt, water and a hair dryer and a little flour. For snow-he explained. Seth was asleep and the baby was hungry. Andy took the van because there was plywood in the back. We have  a huge dumpster in the driveway because we are putting on a new roof, and it rained last night and there is roofing debris and supplies everywhere. SO I had to get the baby down our steep driveway without slipping on gravel or tripping over shingles in the rain. I got Scott and his masterpiece to school and then came home and dressed and fed Spencer, Seth and the baby and then went to the fabric store to get lace for Shanna's dress. Then we went to Target to get diapers and a pair of shoes for Seth. Something i can get on his feet without a prybar! When we got out of the car, Spencer shut the door and Seth wanted to do it. I had already locked it and just wanted to go in the store--Seth did not--he began to whimper, then blubber, then wail at the top of his lungs. I patiently led him toward the store and said 'You can close the door next time--it was Spencer's turn.' Once he gets worked up I just have to wait it out so we trooped through the store with Seth expressing his unhappiness very loudly. I tried shoes on his feet while he was sprawled on the floor kicking and bawling.Soon after that, he decided his life could go on  and cheered up. Then he wanted to point out every item in the store and say 'Mom! Look!' and then refuse to move on until I said, 'Yes. I see."

 When we got through that and back to the car I noticed it was low on gas. I still had to pick up Andy's dry cleaning so I stopped to get gas. When I flipped the lever to open the door to the gas cap, it opened--but when I let go, it shut--I could not get it to stay open. Finally I jammed my keys under the lever and leaped toward the little door to grab it before the keys slipped out. I got the boys food and drinks at McDonald's because I realized I wouldn't have time to fix lunch before my presidency meeting. We were pulling into the street when Spencer informed me he needed to go potty. If he brings up the fact that he needs to go--it is a lost cause--he doesn't mention it until he's close to disaster. I got a diaper from under the seat and had him sit on it--we could at least save Dad's leather seats. After I got the drycleaning and we were headed home, Seth said 'Oops'. I looked back and saw his orange drink tipped over in the space behind the arm rest--so we got Dad's leather seats after all.

We came home long enough to haul the baby up the driveway, change Spencer's clothes, change Seth's diaper, change the baby and re-dress her (spit-up) and nurse her and change my clothes (spit-up) and head out for YW presidency meeting. I hauled the baby back down the driveway and loaded them all into the car. I somehow managed to get through pres. mtg. with Shayla fussing, the boys wrestling and fighting over who could sit in Shayla's seat while I was holding her etc. The meeting got over in time for me to pick up the older kids from school. They all had to squeeze in--luckily Scott decided to walk home.

I'm teaching Joy School tomorrow."


1 comment:

Anna said...

Love these posts.

Your babies sure are adorable.

Happy Birthday Scott!

 It has been awhile since I updated this little family scrapbook on the internet. I like to pop over here from time to time and look at our ...