A mother's job is never done!

Hello world! Its morning!! Thanks so much for coming to my page and letting me share a little piece of my life with you. Here is my first official short story for this blog. I hope you find it entertaining and a great way to start your day!

My eyes flew open as if my alarm clock had overslept and I was late for work. Instead of rising to its annoying call to “wake up”, I was greeted by a five letter word spoken fast, five times. “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!” On average it’s usually twice, but since I hid the top of my eyelids just beneath the cover, hoping to savor five more minutes of sleep, my son decided to continue until I gave in. He won that battle. I couldn’t stand another millisecond of his cute five year old voice.  You know, it doesn’t matter what type of sound you set your alarm to. Whether it’s waterfalls, rain or the sound of birds chirping, after about three days it all sounds the same and reminds you that you have to get up and fulfill your responsibilities. Without looking, I reached for my eyes (my glasses) and then peeled back the covers to find my sock that magically slid off my foot during the night. The whole time my five year old alarm clock is telling me, what seems like his whole life story in the tongues of Charlie Browns teacher. He thrusts me from the bed with his feet and we both head west to check on “brother”.

“Wake up Elijah”, Khalil and I yelled in unison. This was never an easy task, and definitely not a “one-man Job”. See, Elijah likes to stay up all night and watch Untold Stories of the ER. Most kids fall asleep to Sponge Bob or Full House, but Elijah cannot sleep until he finds out how the Doctor will get that crowbar out of that guy’s head! So mornings are very interesting in our house and they are not his favorite time of the day. After the second call for him to wake up, we begin removing the covers while standing back like he was a Lion awakening from a tranquilizer. Elijah was mean in the morning. He did not want to wake up for anyone, but once he stretched his little limbs in every possible direction, he’d rise up and we’d finally head to the living room. Khalil was a walking waffle eater, while Elijah liked to eat breakfast at school or not at all. I glance at the clock on the oven to see how much time I have to work with and it reads 7:02am. School starts at 8am for Elijah and 8:10am for Khalil so my goal is to be in the car by 7:45am. You never thought your brain could work so hard until you have to strategize how to dress two grade school boys, along with yourself, make lunches and do everything else that comes with a typical morning.

“Mom, I’m done with my responsibilities, can I play the game” This was their question every morning (what have we allowed our kids to become? That is another topic for another day).
Elijah stood there in his over-sized WWE sweat jacket. John Cena’s hat now read, “….C ME” John would be appalled! He wanted to wear that jacket every day because he thought it made him the coolest kid that stepped to the Tether ball game. We’d go toe-to-toe about that jacket and he’d give an answer like he was on Jeopardy, as to why he should be able to wear it. “No games this morning, Elijah and go wipe that toothpaste off the perimeter of your mouth and put some lotion on your face,” I responded.  Khalil had stuffed ¾ of the waffles in his mouth and had the audacity to ask me a question like I would be able to understand him. He asked if he could play the game (after a while I learned how to interpret stuffed mouths) as if my answer would be different for him. “No Khalil, didn’t you just hear what I told your brother?” “Well, mom Mrs. Frew said if you want something all you have to do is say please” ,He assured. “Well, son, Mrs. Frew is right about using your manners, but in this house what I say goes and just because you say please doesn’t mean you can have your way!” He won the first battle and I won this one!  He gulped down that whole waffle down his skinny throat and shot to the bathroom like a rocket, to do his responsibilities. I glanced at the clock on the Microwave hoping it was slower than the one on the Oven and it read 7:17am. This has got to be a conspiracy I thought, it was just 7:02am. I hurried and wrapped their chips in foil (we’ve all used foil before) since there were no more sandwich bags, and grabbed my lukewarm coffee and headed to the back.

Water is running, TV’s and lights are on. As usual Khalil is following me closer than my own shadow, begging me to tie his shoes. “Go ask your brother”, was my normal response. Khalil had recently learned to tie his shoes, but was not satisfied that he wasn’t a “double knotter” yet. Thank God for uniforms because I don’t know what the morning would be like without them. Khalil gets dressed different than normal people. He starts from the bottom up. Socks, pants and untied shoes, then he shows off his baby abs until I find a shirt that has no stains on it! Meanwhile, Elijah is always the first one dressed, looking GQ in front of the Television. He yells, “Mom, where do I find Stories of the ER on On Demand?” I couldn’t believe it was 7:27am. I still had to brush my teeth, wash my face and comb my hair and figure out what I was going to wear. On Sunday evenings I swore by my favorite lip gloss that I would get my clothes for the week out. But that was still on my bucket list along with swimming with dolphins. The only thing I knew I was wearing was a jacket and scarf because it was freezing outside. Don’t let women fool you, it doesn’t always take hours for us to get ready. We can go from Godzilla to Miss America in 60 seconds if we have to. This morning I did it in fifty nine! After I thought of all this, it was 7:39am and my heart was pumping like Pepe Le Pew when he saw his crush. Khalil was still waiting for me to tie his shoes. I guess he wasn’t impressed with Elijah’s “Bunny ear technique”, so I bent down to double knot his favorite shoes and at 7:49am we headed out to the car.

“Khalil can you pray for us this morning?” I asked, as I made eye contact through the rear view mirror. He begins, ”Dear God thank you for this day, thank you for my mom, my dad and my brother. Thank you that no one broke in last night. Jesus lives in our heart and the Holy Spirit. I hope we get to play outside today. God made everything. I hope we get to play the game when we get home. In Jesus name. Amen!”

And one by one I drop them off to two different schools (long story). I watch as they enter their classrooms making sure the door completely closes behind them before pulling off. I turn on the Steve Harvey morning show as my heart rate returns back to its normal rhythm and I cruise onto Highway 4 to begin my next shift!