that girl...

I had a MOMENT yesterday... You know THAT girl that bakes. I have never been THAT girl. She bakes cookies weekly and always has a homemade something ready to bring to a meeting at a moment's notice. She probably even has a fully stocked cookie jar, and actually bakes because she enjoys it. I used to look at THAT girl and want to be like her... but, it was a pain in the neck for me to make cookies, and I never even enjoyed them once they were baked because they were gross. My sister-in-law, Rebekah, is definitely one of those girls. When I got her recipe for cookies posted here... she gave me some cookie baking tips and it changed my life. I love baking cookies. When Jakob came home from piano at 6pm he said, "Oh Mom, I need to bring a snack to scouts tonight." at 7pm... I smiled as I packed him a plate of homemade cookies that I just happened to have baking in the oven... today after lunch, I ate a frozen, fresh cookie from my freezer... I'm becoming THAT girl!! I've had similar moments over the past few years. I remember wishing I was THAT girl that didn't get stressed out with her kids in public... I'm pretty much there... that just takes years of having lots of little kids so it takes a house fire to really freak you out, plus you learn to fake it till you make it. I knew I was THAT girl when a younger mom said to me, "How do you do it? I only have two kids and I'm going crazy and you have tons and you're always smiling." I told her my secret... usually it doesn't matter how your kids behave, you look like a good mother if you smile and stay calm, you look like a bad mother when your upset and yelling, crying or having a tantrum on the floor. Like I said, if you're not lovin' it, FAKE IT!! I never wanted to be THAT girl that has 20 peanut butter kids. You know, the frazzled mother with the kids that have mismatched clothes, dirty, snotty, peanut butter encrusted faces, messy hair, etc. Yeah, I think there are times that I'm THAT girl. Some days I look at Leah and wonder how long she has had dried boogers wiped across her cheek. And, I do want to make a button to pin on my kindergartner that says something like, "My Mother Values Independent Thinkers... I dressed myself." Or, "Future Fashion Designer". Or, "Can your five year old do a ponytail this good?" Yeah, I knew I was THAT girl when I allowed Ellie to go to preschool in her red, silky Annie dress-up dress on top of her other clothes, or when I let her pick out silver sparkle shoes as her only pair of dress-up shoes, or the first time that I decided I wasn't going to fight my girls everyday on the way they have their hair for school or whether or not they brushed their teeth... gross, I know. Yeah, I'm THAT girl. There is another elusive stereo-type girl that I'm still trying to figure out. Do you know THAT girl who always looks put together? Here in Texas there are a lot of those girls. (Paige- you are that girl.) Their hair is always perfect, nails done, make-up neat and even in their sweats they still look like they're going out to dinner with their husband. How do they do it? I can get dressed up, on Sunday. I can do my hair, if I have a meeting or something. But, if you stop by my house on laundry day-- SCARY!! I look like the laundry. (In fact, even the ladies that cleaned my house looked more put together than I did.) And, I will add that even when I do style my hair and put make-up on-- you can't always tell. Certainly by the end of the day I'm back to earth mother status. Will I ever be THAT girl? Is it a certain hair-style that eludes me or is it the fact that I wake-up at 7am and send my kids to school by 8am and have a hard enough time grabbing a quick shower, pair of jeans and a ponytail before I'm out the door again. Is it a matter of time or money or skill? I'm not sure... next time you see THAT girl, can you ask her how she does it? (This morning was one of those days that I was planning on staying home all day, cleaning and doing laundry. The school called. Ellie had a bloody nose and needed a new shirt. So, I got the baby girls in the car and put my hair in a pony and headed up to the school. I think I got three sympathetic smiles, two "Are you OK?"s and one, "You look really tired." I needed a sign-- doing good, just doing laundry, didn't style my hair or put on lipstick... today I'm Mother Hen, someday I'll be THAT Girl. Oh, and yesterday I baked cookies just for the fun of it. Yeah, I'm almost THAT girl. And, even though my kid has a blood-stained shirt, I'm carrying a three-week old in her pjs and a boogie faced two year old so I look like THAT girl, I'm not flustered so I'm THAT girl.) [On the way to church the professor winked at me... "Oh jen, today you're definitly THAT girl." Because of the wink we'll assume he meant that girl.]