A Week of Mom-ing During a Pandemic

By Heather Kelley

I thought a lot about what I could share about Motherhood that would be encouraging, or heartwarming. Since I have four kids there has to be something I could come up with, but after nothing popped into my head in between finding inspirational play dough videos on YouTube for my four-year-old and mediating a fight between my ten and twelve year olds about who gets the "good seat" on the  couch, I decided that maybe the best thing I could do is just write down a typical week in the life of mom-ing during a pandemic.

Mom-ing During a Pandemic

Monday - Realize I can't cook any of the meals I planned, because the grocery store was out of "best available" eggs, and meat, and yeast...and creamer for my coffee. Feed everyone chips and dip for lunch, with a side of pickles to make it healthy. Bonus: my six-year-old says I'm the best mom ever. I acknowledge the fact that I also let her eat cookies for breakfast and have my doubts about her assessment of my mom-skills, but appreciate the compliment. The puppy eats all the broccoli in the #quarantinegarden, probably at the six-year-old's request. Cry a little. But not too much - we're out of tissues and I can't afford to use toilet paper to wipe my nose.

Tuesday - Give serious consideration to the educational merits of playing Fortnite, as a substitute for doing any school, because the homeschool math struggle is real and I don't have the energy to figure out multi-digit division. Especially without creamer for my coffee. Stay up till 3am because a false alarm had us hiding out in my closet from potential tornadoes. The four-year-old develops a phobia of falling tomatoes, and I embrace it because, quite frankly... it's adorable.

Wednesday (I think) - Give my ten-year-old the recipe for the hash brown muffins that are supposed to be lunch and let her make them without help, as a special treat to show her how mature she's getting, and not at all because I'm lazy. Ignore the fact that she apparently didn't add enough hash browns, and doubles some unknown spice, I think. Once it's drenched in the final dregs of our sour cream, it's edible. Plus, the kid apparently loves them, and is proud, so I'm counting it as a win.

Thursday - Make homemade GF hamburger buns, and feel like I'm finally rocking the whole homemaker/supermom thing. Carefully document the homemade buns without showing the piles of dirty dishes and randomly amassed clutter that are currently covering most of the kitchen. No one likes the buns, but the French fries are good, and I even made legit kool-aid from a packet for the first time ever, so my four-year-old says it's the best day ever, though she makes sure to also tell me that she had five bad parts of her day. 

Friday - It's basically the weekend so I'm pretty sure I'm not required to listen to my six year old sound out rrrrrrr aaaaaa ttttt for five minutes only for her to decide the word says "mouse." Also, my ten-year-old can totally read out-loud to her little sisters instead of me; I'm not shirking my duties - I'm encouraging sister bonding. Rip a piece of cardboard off the too-many-boxes from things we've had delivered, and scribble a quick sight-word game, that my six-year old loves. So, it's a win. And not at all a sign that I don't usually make her school very fun.

Weekend!!! - I can officially not do any specific schoolwork without feeling guilty about it. Make homemade popsicles that the kids all love. #momwin Ignore the huge pile of laundry and the fact that my husband has to go commando. Wonder when the last time was that any of the kids had a bath, but decide not to ask. Take a bath myself, using the powdered milk we thought we could get away with drinking when the store was out of milk (but then we realized it was basically disgusting) as a fancy milk bath. Watch them play in the backyard till it's too dark to see. Rock the four-year-old to sleep and stare at her beautiful, peaceful face, and realize I wouldn't trade being a mom to these four wildlings for anything in the world.

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