It’s been an adventure packed couple of weeks for Team Csordas, nothing short of epic in the way of glitter bombs, so I thought it was about time I shared some of these sparkling gems with you.

As is true for most days, the morning hustle and bustle can leave me feeling ragged and ready for a nap by the time the bus swings through. These past weeks have been no different. From forgotten lunch boxes to arguing over misplaced math books the am has been A MESS. The highlight was a morning that we were on the ball. Everyone was ready, with forty minutes to spare. Say what? The kids were begging to watch TV, which is a no go before school, but in the interest of peace and time management, I obliged. This created the perfect pocket of time for me to hit the treadmill before the bus. This very special and unexpected blessing would therefore allow me to shower and get dressed before 9am. I was hesitant to risk the change in routine but it looked like such a win-win.

So I went for it.  It was glorious. And then, there came the catch. I came upstairs from the gym and took a quick inventory of what was needed to get out the door in the next 5 minutes. It looked like just coats and book bags. Score.

My son, who was a go for school readiness, (by this I mean he was dressed in appropriate clothing, shoes on, hair and teeth brushed) pulled off the blanket he was using and got down from the couch. He was barefoot and wearing his bathing suit. May seem like no big thing, but this is a kid who takes sixteen minutes to put on one sock. We were doomed. Que the panic, the negotiations and rationals. Add several trips up and down the stairs to rectify the situation. In this moment my white flag was waving, in the form of Lightning McQueen swim trunks and a NY Giants sun shirt. We compromised. He went in jeans and the sun shirt. If it wasn’t 45 degrees and raining it would have been a “Surf’s Up, Dude!, ” now get on the bus, kind of day.

Fast forward a couple of days. The hubs has now run over a roofing nail, refer to the “30 days of being late” if this roofing nail business is new to you. He decided to make an appointment to have the tire patched. A few hours later, he gets a phone call. He assumes it is a call to come and pick up the truck, because the job is finished. Instead it turns out to be a call to inform him that his truck has been dropped off the lift, leaving it with thousands of dollars worth of damage. Although the idea of glitter never crossed his mind, his hysterical laughter was a little eery. I was afraid he was about to crack and instead he shrugged, still quite a bit astonished, and prepared for the week in a rental car.

Thursdays are family nights at the Csordas house, we usually get pizza and play games. I thought it would be fun to go and get pizza dough from the pizza place and make our own. I will spare you the details and just fill you in on the end game. Dough was everywhere. We learned that flour, although equally as messy, is an alli. Overworked dough becomes a beast we can not tame. It covered little hands and then became hardened in the hair on little heads. It molded itself to the bathroom sink and the door handles. I am still discovering its omnipotence.  It was truly like glitter, a fun magical moment that will never fully be gone.

For some reason I did not recall Thursday’s pizza dough debacle on Saturday morning when my new-found attitude of, teach a man to fish, convinced me I should hand over the muffin making to my eight-year-old. With a few swift stirs the batter made its way from one kitchen counter to the next, sliding down the cabinets in-between. Child #4 couldn’t believe his eye and insisted everyone in the house come and see the “messy mistake” that child #2 had made. In an effort to build each other up, this triggered a heart to heart about being human and making mistakes. Within moments of wrapping up said discussion, child #3 discovered that she had left her masterpiece painting of a Halloween night out in the rain. The orange and pink sunset had been washed away and the owl int the spooky tree was now just a soggy mess of brown. So, we continue said conversation about making mistakes as I wipe up tears, paint laden rain water and Salmonella.

Finally,  I would like to leave you with a little visualization. Imagine you are in a hurry. It is the witching hour, you have three of your four children with you, who all want to be at home. You, however, can not go home until you have gone to the bank and the post office. Imagine you go through the bank drive through and deposit all of your cash. You then drive through the parking lot to a store called The Mailbox. Imagine you and these children of yours make your way inside and wait in line. When you hand the postal worker your debit card as he announces your total, he informs you that the USPS part of the store only accepts cash, of which you had just deposited movements before,  or check, of which you have not yet received from the new bank. As he is going into much detail about the other mailing options at your disposal, all of which did accept plastic but were four times the initial price, you are attempting to weigh the option of time vs. money.  Imagine that out of the corner of your eye, you see your son bend down to the ground and pick up something you can not identify. Before you know it he has put it in his mouth, made a few chewing motions and spit it back out onto the floor. A list of plausible illnesses come to mind. The postmaster is still talking in what now sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher’s voice and your eldest daughter taps on your arm. You glance in her direction as she makes a very slow, exaggerated point to the chicklet dispenser and whispers, “He just chewed some ABC gum and then spit it back out on the floor. I think I might puke.” I pick up the disease cube he has spit out on the floor and try to exit as quickly and quietly as possible. We open the doors to see it is now pouring. I imagine it is a glitter bomb set off just for us as we purposely splash in puddles on the way back to the car.

Here is to focusing on the good, especially during the bad and the ugly.

Happy Wednesday, Friends!