It Was A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Morning...

I took a children's literature class in college and loved it. My favorite story was Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I left class, went straight to the book store and purchased it to put in my hope chest to read to my children one day.

I've read this story to all of the kids and they love it. In fact, they love it so much that they helped provide me with and walk through Amy's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Morning this morning.

I woke early with Dawson, took him in my arms to the kitchen where he begged for chocolate milk. I opened the door to discover that the chocolate syrup I turned upside down had not been closed and consequently leaked down the side of the door, into every condiment shelf and was now dripping on the kitchen floor that I mopped last night.

"Arrgh," I said knowing this would be a busy day preparing for Dawson's birthday party while watching two of Mackenzie's friends. I hopped in the shower to cool off and went back to the kitchen to clean up the mess.

As long as I'm in here, I thought, I'll make his cake. I mixed it up while the oven preheated. I opened the oven to put the cake in only to discover the tray of leftover cupcakes I had placed there to keep out of reach of the cat. The cupcakes… in their wrappers… along with the Saran wrap that covered them.

"Oh no!" I said grabbing the mess and replacing it with the cake. I was washing the fridge and the plastic covered cupcake pans when Aiden, who was now eating breakfast, dumped over his entire glass of juice (remember that newly mopped floor?).

Add mopping to the list of clean ups.

I finally got the fridge clean, pans scraped and cake baked. While it was cooling I made the icing and tasted it only to discover that Crisco does indeed expire. I was dumping that batch into the trash can and calling Nelson to beg him to stop by the store on his way home when Dawson walked in, found one of the girl's juice cups and proceeded to dump that on the floor.

Second mopping for the day.

I decided to send the kids outside to eat lunch to try to avoid any more messes in the house. I served up corn dogs with BBQ chips and went back for the drinks. When I delivered them, Mackenzie promptly dumped her plate over into the driveway and smeared ketchup and mustard all over the party grounds.

Is it possible to mop a driveway?

Back inside I was rushing around doing a last minute pick up before vacuuming. I bent over in the boys’ room to pick up the puzzle they had knocked over for the fifth time that day. On my way up I managed to punch myself in the eye on the arm of the rocking chair.

No more mopping. Just vacuuming…and icing the eye.

Now the boys were down, the house was clean, and Mackenzie was quietly watching a movie. I ventured back to the kitchen of horrors to frost the cake. I opened my red coloring bottle to find it had all dried up. Elmo, I feared was going to be a horrid shade of pink complete with dark red spots from the dried coloring I tried popping in the microwave to "loosen" up.

It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad morning. Some mornings are just like that. But the afternoon? Well, look above and see for yourself.