part of the club

Am I the only person who feels like they spend 90% of the day in the kitchen? Cooking, cleaning, dishes, meal prep, three meals, a snack, milk and water requests. Sometimes I wonder why we even have the rest of our house. As much as I love our open floor plan, it sometimes makes me feel like I spend my entire life in one room. While at our new house the living and dining room is combined, the kitchen is separate, (but still has sight lines) and I'm pretty excited for that. 

In other news, I've gone to Pure Barre twice in the past week or so and I think I'm going to keep it up. I'm not disciplined enough to go to the gym and create my own workouts, so classes are my best bet. I love hot yoga but in the warmer months it's kind of a drag to go from hot, to hotter. Pure Barre seems like something I can keep up all year around, and I have a lot of friends that go which makes it more fun.

This morning's class was at 6am, which meant I had to leave my house at 5:15am to get there a few minutes early. Have I mentioned I can't wait to live closer to the city?! Anyhow, at that hour of the morning, the roads were dead and the drive was actually pretty peaceful. On my way in, I passed a house I drive by almost every day. I've noticed that three toddlers live there. A set of twins, then another. I always think of the parents when I drive by, about how full their hands must be. I also think the house is adorable, so I imagine lots of happy memories there.

Well today when I drove past at about 5:20am, the kitchen lights were on. Since it was so dark you could clearly see inside the house, and I could see the Mom doing laundry. At 5am! That was a great moment for me. Often times parenting is a thankless job. Kid has 7 blow outs in one day while you have hours of errands to run? No one cares. You did dishes and laundry for a solid 6 hours without peeing or sitting down? Good for you. Again, no one cares. Not that I expect a medal for taking care of my family, but it'd be nice if someone else was around to say "MAN. WHAT a day." Yet here this woman is, hours before dawn, up tackling the day. And I'm sure she might be thinking the same thing as me. Wishing someone were there to say "Wow. 5am and doing laundry? Good for you!"

The point is is that we're all in the same boat. The grind is flawless some days and awful the next, but every day with kids is really an adventure and an example of what life is all about. There isn't always a thank you, but motherhood really is a tribe of women. And I am happy to be a part of that club.