Serve

This morning I felt clever and ambitious for a morning with my girls so at 8:30 I yelled upstairs asking if they were ever going to get up proclaiming it was 10:30 already. They tumbled downstairs and had some eggs and muffins then my petulant 11 year old asked what we were going to do today. I felt irked at the expression on her face but ignored it and asked her to put pandora on Adele for me. She said she was sick of Adele and all of her songs and she wouldn't do it. I narrowed my eyes and pointed out that I haven't had Pandora on one of my stations in weeks. She ignored me. Then her sister chimed in with a sentiment that if she never had to listen to my music again it would be too soon. I glared at them and asked exactly why every request I make in life is too much for them to give then turned my Adele on. I turned on Eden and asked her if she's proud of who she seems to be trying to become. She sulked. My heart twisted. I felt like a toddler who had just thumped down on my bottom to think. I felt cantankerous and summer had just begun. I missed my people like crazy all school year and now look at us. I realized this day was still young and threw the whole feeling off like a cloak and began going around the house gathering up nail polish and remover and all of the other stuff I needed. Eden still sulked on the couch. Finally I was ready and I sat on the ottoman in front of her with my stuff. She perked up and said "oh what color are you doing?" I said "purple" and pulled her foot into my lap. She looked shocked and said "oh I thought you were going to do your nails." As a side note, I went and got a pedicure over a month ago from the self proclaimed best pedicurist in the Denver area and they still look awesome. So I just started clipping her nails. They were jagged and full of dirt. She talked about the mud pit at camp when I observed the dirt and I resisted commenting on how she could still have dirt in her nails three days after she got home.  I got a pot and filled it with steamy water, a nail brush and soap. I soaked and scrubbed and clipped and soaked and scrubbed and clipped. I talked about how girls usually do this at the beginning of summer and usually before camp and she laughed. Then I removed bits of about four colors of nail polish. She excitedly ran upstairs for her little toe separators. I labored over her nails for quite some time and honestly they needed my attention. The hard edges between us melted away. We chatted about everything. Then I treated Hazel. She giggled wiggled and smudged and chattered. Then I treated Kait who reclined like a princess and patiently waited. Eden loaned her the toe separators which turned her poor tiny toes blue but she didn't want to take them off. Haha. They basked in my loving service. I reveled in serving them in a different way than doing laundry and making meals. It was very refreshing. At 11:00 we were about to head to Longmont and Eden looked at me suspiciously and said "Exactly what time DID we get up this morning anyway?" I blandly replied "8:30." She looked like Sherlock Holmes and incredulously said "you lied!!!!!" I smiled beatifically and headed out the door. The rest of our day has been amazing. I really believe it's because I decided in my heart what I wanted out of this day then I took a physical time consuming approach to accomplishing it. So to all you Mommy's... when you hit your last straw, maybe every tenth time it happens, just turn that old devil flat on his back and do something unexpected for the one's you love. For me it was more rewarding than taking a treat for myself.