What's In My Teapot?

If there is one thing I have learned as a mother, it is that children will alter your life forever and your plans in the blink of an eye. For instance... This morning our family, dressed nicely and behaving well, was enjoying a pleasant drive to the church in Maryland where Wesley & his family first joined the plain people because the church was celebrating it's 50th anniversary when suddenly, 10-15 minutes from our destination, the toddler opened his mouth and threw up. Just. like. that. Without warning, the day had just switched from Plan A to Plan B. Now what? The first thing we had to do on this new course was obvious: park by the side of the road and clean up the mess. Once Parker and his carseat had been restored to as much cleanliness as was possible with a wipes and a change of clothes, we had a decision to make... Should we take the chance that this was a case of carsickness, albeit his first, and go on to church? Should we all turn around and go home...

I can't help it- whenever I have a day in which one thing after another goes awry, I think of Anne and her Jonah Day. It comforts me, somehow, to know that I am not the only one who has these kinds of days. Above all, it helps to give these days a name. Jonah Days...  ...are when the two-year-old tries to refill his own water bottle from the BRITA tank in the fridge and ends up leaving the spigot turned on so that the fridge requires several towels and a spontaneous cleaning right in the middle of doing flashcards. ...are when it's raining for the fourth day in a row and the children are climbing walls and turning couch cushions into horses and picking fights every time you turn around- and then some. ...are when you put a zipper in a dress you are sewing for your daughter and the sewn-in belt absolutely does not line up in the back and needs to be fixed, but you have to put the project away at this disconcerting point because you are suppose to be teaching school a...