Anybody know where I can send in my application for Mother of the Year?

Apparently my sons have decided that a little redecorating is necessary. Either that or they think we have way too much money and not enough to spend it on. How else do you explain BOTH of these things happening in one weeks time?

Yes, that is a glass lamp that is broken to bits. It is our main source of light in our living room, so it will need to be replaced tonight. And yes, that is big, fat Sharpie on our wall. A wall that will need to be primed and repainted, since nothing we have tried has taken one bit of pen off of our wall and yet has removed all sorts of paint. (For the record, we have tried: Magic Eraser, nail polish remover, alcohol, WD-40, Windex, degreaser and Goo Gone, any other suggestions will be tried, but at this point, I have little hope).

The thing that gets me is how fast these things happen. Any judgement I ever had for mothers who "let" stuff like this happen has dwindled daily. Both of these things happened in a matter of seconds, and one of them while I was in the room (I didn't know Micah was about to push the lamp over), the other while I was doing something completely unnecessary, like going to the bathroom!

So even though I feel like pulling my hair out right now and crying about the money in the checkbook I thought was going to stay there, I'm glad to know that at least I am learning humility and compassion. I don't know if it comes from insecurity or self-righteousness or both, but mothers can have a way of cutting each other down instead of lifting each other up. We can get so sure of our own skills that we look down our noses in disgust at the ones who are doing it "wrong". Or maybe we aren't sure of our skills. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe we are all so secretly scared that we are doing it all wrong that the only way we can make ourselves feel better is to point our fingers at someone else who we perceive is doing it "worse". Who knows? All I know is that I have had a real dose of feeling like a failure this week and my heart goes out to all those mothers who may be feeling the same. I am certain that we are all doing our best and God's grace is enough to fill in the gaps (now hopefully He will do something about those gaps in our checkbook!).