A truly "Family" moment

I'm an idealist.

I constantly think that it is possible to reach an ideal state here on this earth. I'm completely delusional in this regard. I know this! I'm always disappointed in myself or react poorly when things don't go like I think they should in my mind. I usually set myself up for this disappointment by not seeing reality nor accounting for pure human behavior. I have a friend that insists having no expectations is a good thing because then you are not disappointed. As hard as I try, I can't seem to adopt this mentality. I ALWAYS have expectations and will ALWAYS shoot for the ideal. I think it is part of my chemical make-up.

I live by the mantra: "Better to shoot for the stars and miss, than to shoot for a manure pile and hit it!"

Anyway.....on Saturday, I had a glimpse of an "ideal" family moment. We are FAR from perfect! I could fill pages and pages with all of our mishaps, but on Saturday, I had a "perfect" experience.

The setting: Shane had a class and test to get his ham radio operator license. He left the house at 6:30 in the morning and we knew he wouldn't be seen again till sometime in the afternoon. Robbie had a 7 am Jamboree meeting in American Fork. I had arranged with our friend to carpool so I was going to take them to the meeting and she would bring them home because I had a camp meeting at 9 am.

I got up at 5:30ish to shower and dress. Took Robbie and Jarrett at 6:45 am and then returned home to make cinnamon rolls, do laundry (I needed some clothes to wear that day), and get ready for my meeting. All was going according to my plan until I got a text from Robbie that he had grabbed Michael's class A scout uniform instead of his own and could I possibly bring him his shirt for the picture he had to take. This threw me into a tizzie. I would have just said "tough luck" but I felt partly to blame because I had mistakenly put their shirts in the wrong places. Michael had the same problem on Tuesday.

I KNOW that I totally OVERreacted and shouldn't have been so upset, but I was. I couldn't leave just then because rolls were coming out of the oven. Well, the 3 other kids tried to help out the best they could. Michael found the right shirt and tried to iron it, they helped me with the frosting and were so supportive of anything that I tried. We ended up calling my assistant camp director to pick up the rolls and the girl and get them to the meeting and my kids got everything I asked of them in short order. I was able to get Robbie his shirt and get to my meeting only 7 minutes late.

When I was headed home 2 hours later, I was hoping that the kids had at least attempted to do their Saturday chores so I didn't have to nag them into it. I was shocked and amazed when I opened the door to find children working together cleaning the shelves in the refrigerator. Turns out they had been cleaning for 2 hours straight. They had not only done all of their own Saturday chores and mine to boot, they had done Robbie's since he was at a meeting, wiped down doors, cleaned the fridge, swept and mopped and even cleaned the track in the sliding glass door!!

I was so happy!! I told them how much it meant for me that they pulled together and worked solely to help me out and make me feel better. I saw a glimpse of "Perfect". I know that each day will bring disappointments and frustration but it was so great to see that there are some moments in my life that can completely match up to that "Ideal" picture that I have in my head.