Photos and stress
I chose these to remember that I really actually love these guys. The unfortunate thing is that I didn’t have these photos when I was in the middle of my temper tantrum while we were getting ready. I had ironclad plans for making this a no stress event. It began with THE CLOTHING PLAN. I went to extreme circumstances to nail down our clothes and didn’t even check the drawers. Armed with Shannon’s genius, I went on a shopping trip and picked out all our clothes at once. Once home, I didn’t even let the kids see their new shirts & sweaters. I hid them. If even one of those pieces of clothing were to run off, I knew I’d never see them again. Sounds fireproof, doesn’t it? Check out the rest of the tale below the pictures.
Fast forward to us actually getting dressed. I had the clothes laid out, clean and a full outfit for everyone, even down to the shoes. Shirts were donned and hair was getting brushed, things were going along swimmingly until I turn to dress Lacey. NO PANTS!! I know many of you can imagine the frustration leaking out of me when I knew that THEY WERE JUST THERE!!!! Even as I’m writing this I can still feel it. And as I looked in exasperation, I made my most levelheaded and mature move as a parent and yelled out, “Whoever finds Lacey’s jeans gets TEN bucks!!”. Bingo, found by Jema! I hesitate to fill you in on my guess as to how they got lost, but I can’t help it. Just to let you know that I’m beyond forgetful as a Mom, I’m pretty sure I walked around with them in my hand and forgot where I put them. There….whew, that’s my confession for the day!
It doesn’t end there though. We are fully clothed and “shoed” except for Judah. ALL the shoes were in one pile ready to put on and by the time the last kid got to the pile, one of them was missing! Now that I was a full believer in the benefits of bellowing for help, I was rescued by my husband, who knew exactly where it was. That’s because he’s the one who saw a shoe in his way and elected to put it away. ONE shoe. Who puts ONE shoe away?!? [Love ya hon!]
I’m pretty sure there were plenty more stressful occasions in the preparations. Those were just the most humorous. The painful ones? I don’t want to ruin your day with that!
I do want you to be encouraged though, when you are preparing for family pictures, or even something similar and you run into those stressful times. Know that you’re normal. I can’t take the stress away, but knowing what you’ll run into before you get there can help.