You Have to Laugh
"So many tangles in life are ultimately hopeless that we have no appropriate sword other than laughter." ~Gordon W. Allport
It was one of those weekends.
My mother in law came to town for her birthday. Almost twenty years and three children later, I'm still at the point where I want to impress her with how perfect my life can be. I want to be the perfect wife to her son, mother to her grandchildren, baker of birthday cake, keeper of the home and now successful professional. Up until Friday afternoon, I had convinced myself that I had her believing me.
Friday afternoon we are doing the "pick children up loop" and are patiently waiting in the car line for the two younger children and a friend. As we scoot the truck forward the middle child comes into view holding a multicolored monstrosity of a thing that I soon found out was a hamster cage. This is when my mother's mind went into panic. I remember signing forms at the beginning of the year, I remember middle child begging incessantly for the chance to bring the class pet home one weekend. I vaguely remember caving in. Wasn't there a "not on mother in law weekend" clause? Didn't they realize this was my biannual inspection? Just about the time I was coming up with good reasons why we could not hamster sit, the middle child spotted the car. With all of the excitement of a nine year old, she smiled and held up the cage, absolutely delirious that her name had been chosen for the hamster.
Thus began the weekend of adventure. Yes the hamster was cute, yes it was stinky, yes it poops a lot, yes we cleaned the cage - twice, yes it came to the house without back up food and bedding. Yes it only gets on the wheel in the middle of the night, yes it throws it's bedding out of the cage and I couldn't tell you how.
And YES, it escaped. On Saturday morning, two sips into my mandatory cup of coffee, my brother realized that the cage was inhabitant less. As the house slept I searched. As I searched, my precious coffee chilled. We found him, affectionately renamed "The monster", sleeping soundly behind the china buffet.
Yesterday, after safely returning the monster to school, I returned home to my mother in law and no trace of the insanity that was our weekend. We brewed our coffee, we sat around the table and we breathed a sigh of relief as only mothers can. And then we laughed.
It was one of those weekends.
My mother in law came to town for her birthday. Almost twenty years and three children later, I'm still at the point where I want to impress her with how perfect my life can be. I want to be the perfect wife to her son, mother to her grandchildren, baker of birthday cake, keeper of the home and now successful professional. Up until Friday afternoon, I had convinced myself that I had her believing me.
Friday afternoon we are doing the "pick children up loop" and are patiently waiting in the car line for the two younger children and a friend. As we scoot the truck forward the middle child comes into view holding a multicolored monstrosity of a thing that I soon found out was a hamster cage. This is when my mother's mind went into panic. I remember signing forms at the beginning of the year, I remember middle child begging incessantly for the chance to bring the class pet home one weekend. I vaguely remember caving in. Wasn't there a "not on mother in law weekend" clause? Didn't they realize this was my biannual inspection? Just about the time I was coming up with good reasons why we could not hamster sit, the middle child spotted the car. With all of the excitement of a nine year old, she smiled and held up the cage, absolutely delirious that her name had been chosen for the hamster.
Thus began the weekend of adventure. Yes the hamster was cute, yes it was stinky, yes it poops a lot, yes we cleaned the cage - twice, yes it came to the house without back up food and bedding. Yes it only gets on the wheel in the middle of the night, yes it throws it's bedding out of the cage and I couldn't tell you how.
And YES, it escaped. On Saturday morning, two sips into my mandatory cup of coffee, my brother realized that the cage was inhabitant less. As the house slept I searched. As I searched, my precious coffee chilled. We found him, affectionately renamed "The monster", sleeping soundly behind the china buffet.
Yesterday, after safely returning the monster to school, I returned home to my mother in law and no trace of the insanity that was our weekend. We brewed our coffee, we sat around the table and we breathed a sigh of relief as only mothers can. And then we laughed.
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