Super, Special Day

Last week, I was repeatedly catching puke in a large plastic bowl and comforting my distraught, panicked daughter while simultaneously trying to stifle my own nausea after having just recovered from the same stomach plague. It wasn’t pretty. With three kids ages 7, 5 and 2, I’m in the trenches of parenting. It gets straight up cray-cray down here, but at this point in my career, I’m able to roll with the punches pretty damn well. But as I’ve grown and matured into motherhood, I’ve had to make sacrifices along the way. Like dignity. Cause after every med student this side of the Flint Hills has seen your hoohoo during childbirth, you’re just less inclined to care about putting it all out there. And let’s not forget cervical checks. Like a damn cow I tell you.

Anyways…back to the story I was trying to tell. About last week. And the pukemageddon. And feeling the complete polar opposite of glamorous. Oh the things that happened in our bathroom. Violent. That virus was violent I tell you!

Today, though, was like the redemptive sunrise after a night of pitch blackness. It was just a damn good day I tell you. And while my natural inclination is to wait in battle stance for that other shoe to drop, imma just try and enjoy this.

Most importantly, today is my center child’s sixth birthday. This giggling, cuddly, go-with-the flow darling is such a blessing to our family. We kicked off celebrations with our traditional birthday pancakes (complete with candles), and then I later had lunch with her at school and brought birthday treats to her classroom. This kid. She wears her joy on her sleeve and deserves every single smile she beamed. She doesn’t always have it easy, but that’s a story for another day.

And if celebrating this milestone weren’t enough, God gifted me with an extra dollop of icing on this birthday cake of a day.  You know that thing I mentioned earlier? That thing that goes crashing to the birthroom floor? (Not placenta, for all you Live fans out there.) Dignity. The feeling that you’re someone more than just a hair-holder-backer-puke-catcher.

Thanks to the good folks at KAKE-TV, our local ABC affiliate, I got to get all gussied up and talk about my blogging journey. It was surreal. I’d like to write more, but y’all, I’m exhausted. So here’s the clip. I was super nervous and cold-palm-sweaty, but somehow managed to pull it off.

Thank you to everyone who tuned in and gave me words of encouragement afterward. My momma’s voice touched me the most. I made her proud. Heck, I made me proud. And apparently I terrified my toddler son who cried hysterically when he saw me on the TV at daycare. Poor guy probably thought I was stuck in that small box!

Who knows, maybe this will inspire me to start actually blogging again. 🙂