How Determined to Get Out of the House Was I?

Today Leo and I were determined to get out of the house. Yes, it is still freezing here. Yes, it is still snowing. But I was getting cabin fever, and I had to get out of the house! Here is a picture that will give you an idea of exactly how determined I was to get out of the house. It took me about 20 minutes to defrost my poor car. As I was chiseling away all of the ice with a scraper, I thought to myself, "Wow, I am REALLY determined to get out of the house today."

Leo and I went to a ladies luncheon on Sugar Road in Bolton. It was hosted by a lady I know from church. I had never driven down Sugar Road before, although I had passed it many times. What a beautiful country road. It looked like a winter wonderland driving through all of the snow and ice.

I'd never been to this lady's house before, so when I arrived at the address it looked like everyone was parking on the street at the bottom of the driveway. I parked my car, took Leo out of his car seat, put him in the Ergo carrier, and parked at the bottom of the driveway with the other cars. The driveway was incredibly steep, and very icy. As I realized how steep and icy it was, and how far away the house was once I got around the bend and could actually see the house, it was too late to turn back. I determined that at that point it would be far more treacherous for me to turn around and walk downhill in the ice with Leo than it would be to continue walking uphill. Just as I was thinking this, I was approached by some very sweet children whose ages ranged from about 5 to 10-years-old. There were 5 boys and 1 girl. One of the boys said to me, "Mam, are you going up to the house?" "Yes, I replied. This is Margaret's house, isn't it?" "Yes," the boy replied. "It's awfully steep and icy," he said. Then he directed one of the other children to walk with Leo and I up the driveway to make sure we didn't fall. So a sweet little girl named Maggie walked and talked with Leo and I the entire walk up. How refreshing it is to come across children with manners in this day and age.

When I got to the top of the driveway, I was surprised to see a dozen cars parked up there. Apparently, the cars that decided to park on the street were the cars that couldn't make it up the driveway because they didn't have four-wheel-drive. Well, we DO have four-wheel-drive on our SUV, so it turns out that we could've driven up the driveway after all! Thankfully, a lady was able to give Leo and I a ride back down to our car once the luncheon had ended.

The lady's house was beautiful. It looked like a palace, and it was so tidy. And get this - the woman has 8 children! Her youngest is only 5- years-old! I wouldn't have believed her, had I not counted all of the Christmas stockings hanging from the mantle. She was telling me how she used to get so intimidated when she was a young mom and would meet other moms who just seemed to "have it all together." I just kept knodding my head, as I stood there wondering if she truly thought she didn't "have it together."

There were about 15 ladies in attendance, and probably 30 children running around the house.

Every few minutes, a child would cry, or you'd hear something shatter. I'm telling you, this woman did not bat an eyelash. I wondered if I could ever be like that...be able to still hold a conversation while 30 kids were running around my lovely furnished home destroying things...and not even bat an eyelash. Talk about grace. I wonder if there comes a point in motherhood where you just surrender, in a positive sense, and accept that children are going to fall down and hurt themselves, and that things are going to break. Being surrounded by large families, I have noticed that it is often the mothers with the most children who are the least uptight, and seem to be the most worry-free, least stressed, laid back moms.