intervention

I kinda need one right now.  No not like in the way of hey you have been doing way too many drugs or that glass of wine needs to be your last.  I need an intervention of the mommy kind.  You know it, when your house is clean for like 30 seconds and then destroyed?! How is that? How does that happen?  My house CAN NOT stay clean.  And for me, it drives me insane.  Don't get me wrong, I am not Martha Stewart, but just a little picked up I would appreciate...instead, this is what it looks like, AFTER I cleaned it this morning!  Yes it is just noon now!  So frustrating!  I decided as mothers we need an Elf, you know the Elf on the shelf, our is Elfie, well I want one....one that cleans whatever room is left and when you re-enter TA DA! It's clean!  Is it winter? Maybe, maybe since the kids are in here more and we are not at parks or running around as much stuff is getting nasty!  Yes, notice Nolan, ripping apart toxic magazine pages and trying to eat them? Oh and you also noticed that he is in a short sleeve onesie and it is 13 degrees out?  YEP I am that mom right now, see what I mean, intervention time.  I went to go change him for the third time since he has gotten up, no I a not exaggerating, and what do you think I found in his closest, NOTHING...not one long sleeved onesie, well that isn't true, there was a Halloween one that doesn't fit him anymore so it was between that and the summer one, and there you have it...a mom who is overwhelmed, overworked and well let's be honest, highly under paid at her wits end.  So, in my filthy house right now you'll hear the hum of the washing machine, because nothing says laundry time like when you don't have any clean clothes to put on your child!

 So, I notice all of this because I get to go out tonight, yep, a glorious night out on the town with an old friend, Barrio in St. Paul, so YUMMY, if you haven't been be jealous, it's trendy, delicious and awesome!    But do you know what that means....that means I have to have a sitter as Jeremy is working late, so what does a sitter mean to a control freak like me?  I HAVE TO CLEAN UP THIS MESS!  I can't have a 16 year old come in here and wonder who is raising these poor kids, how do they live and why is the baby in a summer outfit...the horror of it all!  Now, bare in mind that this 16 year old is my cousin, so it isn't as if I need to really pretend I have it all together, but come one, a little bit right?  Maybe it's a delusion only held for me, and everyone really knows my secret.  Like my lovely neighbor who will randomly stop by and chat throughout the year nd I keep telling her, "OH MY this is the ONE night I didn't pick up the kitchen?"  Do you think after 5 years she buys that?  Probably not.  I think that's why today is my intervention, I am coming clean...HAHAHA....and letting my "dirty" secret out.  I don't have it all together.  My house isn't spotless, my kids aren't dressed appropriately even a little today.  And Graham doesn't have hat hair, his hair was that bad when he left and I through a hat on it, I mean that's a blessing this time of year that really needs to be cherished.  We all can just have hat hair and have no reason to bother even doing our children's hair because Audrey looks like she went down a slide one to many times and Graham looks like no one has washed or combed his hair in 2 weeks, and it's only been 2 days, that I am not kidding about!  I do keep their bodies clean, their rooms and laundry, that's on a bi-weekly basis!

So, in all that dirty mess and after seeing a Facebook post yesterday that someone suggested putting their kids photos from the photo shoot that they are sassy and screaming on their Christmas card, I was inspired to let it all hang out and let you know, this mama, ain't perfect!  But a girl can dream and pretend and well, my Christmas card is dang close.  I love it.  It's so beautiful and for so many reasons.  One of the most shallow things I thought when we found out Nolan had Down Syndrome was about our Christmas card.  I mean this is serious business in the Robbins House, Jeremy has to give me a budget, no joke, I am obsessed with good cards, and we won a contest on an amazing stationery site, so we get a large credit for our cards, well they could be free if I went with the cheaper ones, but who can do that?  So, we won the contest and I got to order the "mini-book" yes, crazy, over the top, obnoxious even, but I am in love with it.  So, when he was born I thought to myself, 'what's the point of amazing Christmas cards now?'.  It's awful to admit and disgusting really and now after a year, laughable.  What a joke? Are you kidding me?  Nolan was the cutest and most amazing thing about our cards, last year and this year when we won AGAIN...yes with Nolan on our card we were selected again and we are hoping for three years in a row, I can be greedy right?  So, here is our perfect card to make up for all of the imperfections previously mentioned!  We are a blend really right, waxing and waning between put together and a frazzled mess.  I like to believe that all of us moms out there have days that we rock it, we look good, feel good and all is right and then, well days like today....it's part of the journey!