On the Bright Side...

Things are a little nutty around here lately...or maybe it's just me that's nutty and things are normal, but either way...

I probably shouldn't kid myself, we DID just bring a baby home three months ago...somehow I subconsciously convinced myself that that wouldn't really change anything...and that all of my brain cells would stay intact.

I'm not going to make this long, because it's late and I'm tired and stringing sensible words together these days, especially after 9 p.m., feels about as hard as comprehending quantum physics or neuroscience or something else really, really complicated (I don't know much about either of those things, but they sound really complicated!). Someone once told me that you lose part of your brain with each baby you have. I thought they were joking...until now. Mine feels like it has turned into a hazy pile of mush. I'm hoping I regain some of it back when I start sleeping through the night again, but who knows at this rate!

So the girls had swim lessons tonight. They've been taking them once a week and Scott has typically taken them to the lessons because I was attending a book study offered at our church. Aubrey and I would go to the book study, Dad and the girls would go to swim lessons.  The book study ended last week and I decided that we should all go to swim lessons tonight...mommy and baby included. Which was a fine idea except that usually I'm the one standing at the door handing the girls their swim bag with their towels and goggles and dry underwear for afterwards, all packed up and ready to go, as everyone heads out the door.

So tonight, in the midst of trying to get the baby in her carseat and pack a bag for her, and get my shoes on and everyone else in the car guess what happened?

Momma forgot to grab the bag with the goggles and towels and dry underwear because she had a diaper bag over her shoulder.  Somehow when you have a diaper bag you feel like you have absolutely everything you need and all else falls to the wayside.

We pulled into the parking lot of the middle school where the swim lessons are held and as everyone filed out the door of the car (late, of course!) Scott yelled "grab your bag."

Um.

"Bag? What bag? Where's the bag?!! Good grief, we make it all the way to swim lessons and we don't have the bag?!"

So yes, we sauntered in late without goggles or towels for our children at SWIM PRACTICE. I mean, that's like not having toilet paper in your bathroom, or ice in your freezer, or chocolate chips in your chocolate chip cookies.

Oh well.

The girls had a great lesson, got out of the pool shivering and mom stood on the side of the pool with guess what to dry them off?

A dry swaddle blanket that I'd been using as a burp cloth. Truth be told it smelled like spit up.

"Come here Ella, want me to dry you off with this?"

She stares at me like I'm nuts. I am, so I guess that's ok.

"Is Ava going to?" (Is Ava going to let you dry her off with that ridiculousness is what she meant to ask).

"Yup, I'm going to dry Ava off with this too."

A dry swaddle burp cloth is better than nothing at all when  you're dripping with pool water, right?

And so I dried her face and her neck and legs...and then Ava's face and neck and legs. With the burp cloth blanket that smelled like spit up.

The girls also borrowed goggles from the swim instructor because we had forgotten ours. Apparently goggles borrowed from swim instructors are WAY better than the ones mommy had purchased from the Dollar Store or daddy found on the clarence rack at Wal-Mart.

"They were SO good," Ava said. "We could actually see and water didn't get our eyes."

"No kidding," I say, nodding my head up and down.

So we purchased two new pairs from the instructors at $10 each.

"These are professional swim goggles," Dad reported to the girls on the way out to the car. "Like the real, professional swimmers wear."

Not the ones who forget their towels and utilize Dollar Store goggles. We're moving into the big time now.

And so, after we got home and got everyone showered and to bed Scott said, "See, there is a lesson here-- even mistakes can turn into something good."

"Huh?" I wasn't following.

"You know-- we forgot the bag, but now look at the great goggles the girls have."

"Yes, you're absolutely right babe."

So now, not only can the girls see more clearly out of their new goggles, but we're seeing things a little more clearly tonight too.

And that's about how life goes lately...it feels wild and forgetful and crazy, but we're trying to not make mountains out of molehills, and my husband, who is fortunately more of an optimist than I am, is helping us all see the bright side.