Sometimes a Mama needs a helping hand. And sometimes encouraging words come from unexpected places.
Courtesy of Sarah Shrader
With a little over 2 weeks until Christmas, guess what I did NOT plan to do: clean out my fridge. Seriously, between gift buying, crafts, holiday events, Christmas plays, Christmas choirs, gift wrapping – all of it, my fridge was not on my list. Sure, it may have needed to be cleaned – but it was not on my care-to-do-before-Christmas list.
You know what else was not on my list: my kids being cancelled from school for fog and spending two days in a row working from home while trying to maintain some sort of order and keep my house from succumbing to the mess of two kids running wild while Mama works. Nope, definitely was not on my list either.
Regardless, that was how this week went. And after two days of cancellation for fog, I was praying for clear skies. Seriously, I had moments that took me back to 2020 and the darkness of those days where work and kids at home took over and I nearly lost my mind.
And well, I may have for a bit this week. Let’s be honest, Christmas time is stressful for a Mama. And, I am not sure if I told you all this before – but like, I have this tendency to put a lot of pressure on myself for things to be perfect. No, not just ok or fine (thanks, mom), but perfect. Especially the holidays. And I fully recognize that it is only me putting the pressure on myself – but still, I push myself.
Anyway, back to this week and my clean fridge which was not supposed to be cleaned until AFTER Christmas. On day two of fog cancellations, I took a break from work to grab some lunch only to walk into my kitchen practically destroyed with finger nail polish and flour concoctions.
Actually, let’s rewind. After day one and not so nicely telling them to clean up all their crap, I shipped the girls off to church choir that night and literally straightened my main part of my house up to perfection – I just couldn’t take it. Plus, I figured they go back to school tomorrow so this will last until the weekend. I did not expect a second day at home with them.
By the time day two came around, I was exhausted from the constant reminders of pick up after yourself, clean this up, fix that, etc. After their attempt to clean up, my stomach growling led me into the kitchen where I opened the fridge. Only, Reagan had recently brought home a succulent that, in a cleaning frenzy ended up on top of the fridge, and when she went to put something up there moments before while cleaning, it pushed the small plant in a glass full of dirt to the edge of the front of the fridge doors.
One can only imagine what happened next. I opened the fridge, and this small little plant came crashing down, casting dirt on each and every shelf of my fridge – including the shelves on the French doors. My fridge was covered in soil – on top of all the food in there – just dirt everywhere.
So, I did what every sane mom would do: I closed the doors and walked away. I took a breather – a step back. Tears may have fallen. I was to that point.
Conveniently, within minutes, Lee pulled into my driveway. Seeing my frustration, we went into the kitchen and pulled all the food – wiped off and saved what we could (threw away stuff that really should have been thrown away months ago), and hand washed all of the shelves and drawers. In doing so, half of the dirt fell to the floor which Lee finished off by mopping.
In the end, my sweet Maylie – who had been scolded and yelled at for two days because of the stress of the holidays, working from home with kids and a messy house – simply said, “well, Mom, at least you have a clean fridge now!”
Ha! Part of me wanted to smack her. But no, I didn’t! Because she was, in fact, right!
This season – and any extra stressors – sometimes puts a lot on us parents trying to make the best of it. So much so that we often miss the joy and beauty of the little parts.
Don’t get me wrong, we now officially have a weekly chore chart at my house and rules have been handed out. But, at the end of the day, I can see the wisdom and optimism in the words of my girl.
There will be parts of the next few weeks that feel hard and heavy – stressful to say the least. But I vow to pay attention to the beauty in the chaos along the way – it will be a lot and things may come along that I wasn’t expecting, but I feel like I am in a much better place to embrace and place them positively.
After all, I can’t even begin to tell you how amazing it feels to have a sparkling clean fridge.
Sarah (Pitson) Shrader was born and raised in Lima. She is a Lima Central Catholic and Tiffin University graduate. Sarah is a full-time working mama who enjoys writing about her somewhat crazy, always adventurous life as a mother. She lives in Bath Township with her daughters and writing inspirations, Maylie and Reagan.
