Quiet Time? Yes, Please!!!

Yesterday, after driving around all morning signing my 3 year old up for fall Pre-K, I pulled into the driveway and glanced in the rearview mirror at 3 of my 4 children (I didn't forget one somewhere- L is in the Special Needs Pre-K class) and they were all ASLEEP! What? How could they? Falling asleep! In the car! Is soooooo cruel! I can't move them inside because they will wake up. I can't leave them in the car because eventually someone will wake up and who knows what they will get up to... (Plus, it's a BIG NO NO- but never mind that) So, what did I do? I quietly opened up the van door and closed it gently, then ran inside and up the stairs to my room- I grabbed the down comforter and a book out of my room and ran back downstairs and grabbed a Dr. Pepper and dragged a camping chair out of the garage.

This was going to be GLORIOUS! They'd be asleep- in the car- and I'd be set up in my chair, enjoying my Dr. Pepper, reading a nice book and snuggled under the comforter. Okay, yes, I was in my driveway, but quiet time only comes but once in a blue moon and I could not turn it down. And so, all set up, and ready for my quiet time to begin, I opened my Dr. Pepper and my book and leaned back into my chair.
A sigh of contentment escaped my lips and I knew this was going to be wonderful.

But, then, my ears perked up at the sound of a whimper. I held my breath and hoped it was just the wind, but there it was again. A whimper. I looked up at the car and I can see C waving her hands- This was the moment a few drips of snow fall, just before the crushing avalanche. C threw her head back and let out a wail that rivals most police sirens, waking up J and M and thereby, ending the piece of quiet I had managed to make the best of in my driveway.

Yep, it was over. Sigh.

You see, this is how I look at the upside of everything. That was a moment when I could have given in and gotten down about how unfair it was that on the one day my kids actually napped at the same time they did it in the car- but it didn't even cross my mind to mope- it just meant I had to change my picture of IDEAL and move on. It's a metaphor for what our family life has been like since we had kids and things started to unravel. We hoped our quiet time would be snuggled in a bed with a good book and the heater running, but, instead, it's us sitting in the driveway balancing precariously on a camping chair with a hole in it, ignoring the wind and threatening rain, to just carve out a second of quiet. The chaos of that quiet time is so much like the chaos of my life. And yet, it counts as a moment. I'll take the joy of a few fleeting moments and live a lifetime off of it because I can work with anything and I will make the best of it.

That is life with 4 kids. That is life with an autism diagnosis. That is life with an asperger's, ADHD and ODD diagnosis. That is life.

Make the best of what you got! You only get it once!

-LL