The Un-Happiest Mommy on the Block

Trying to find and focus on the beauty of motherhood is honestly something I strive for daily. Honestly. But today was anything but beautiful.

Waking up to the sound of rain alone was enough to send me into a tizzy trying to figure out how I was going to manage being indoors all day with a 1, 3 and 5-year old.

But I think the disastrous portion of my day really started with my little one waking up with a fever. He is teething. His nose and mouth alone are oozing enough liquid-matter to fill a drywall bucket.

He wouldn't eat. He wouldn't let me put him down. He wouldn't smile. He did however have a very keen interest in a certain part of my anatomy and was ravenous in his nursing appetite today. Kind of like having a newborn all over again.

Then there was the homeschooling portion of our day. It went from bad to worse. And I think it ended with my daughter screaming out that she hated school AND ME. I didn't handle this in a very gentle way and let my emotions get the better of me. Instead of calling it quits, I presented her with even MORE schoolwork. I kind of felt like a really bratty and selfish babysitter instead of a loving and nurturing mother.

I will try and keep it brief, but here is a little more about my day:

While attempting to strip my son's bed sheets for a good washing, I noticed a, well, there's no polite way to say it, a skid mark on his comforter. Ugh! Now I have TWO extra loads of laundry.
My baby had diarrhea from teething and the older two kept sniffing his bottom and yelling things like, "Oh, gross/He stinks/Smell his butt/Ahhh, diarrhea!!!" Bathroom humor is HUGE in our house right now.
Spent 45-minutes chasing toddler son around library as he tore books, videos, DVDs and stuffed animals off of display tables. At one point I actually lost him. Panicked for about 15 seconds and found him in the puppet section.
While at the store: 3-year old son is accidentally sprayed in the eyes by a cleaning agent while trying to move to the side of the aisle in an effort to get out of the way of a very grumpy lady (who obviously has never had children of her own OR doesn't remember what it was like when her's were young). Lose 20 minutes while filling out the "incident report" and flushing son's eyes with water in the ladies room.
My 5-year old is pretending to "shoot" tiger claws out from a tiger figure we are purchasing for one of the birthday gifts. She notices a card with George W. Bush on the front in the "Political" card section of the Graduation cards and loudly exclaims, "Hey Mom, I just shot the President". Yikes. What kind of training camp am I running in my home?
I think that after that nothing much happened at the store. Oh, except for the baby's fingers getting stuck in the conveyor belt during check-out. That's it I think.

I'm really trying to find the beauty in my day. I'd really like to be able to share a very wise and insightful lesson that was taken from my day, but I just can't wrap it all up in a neat little package for you.
Perhaps some days are not very pretty. Perhaps, like one of the titles from a library book we borrowed today, there is "A Season for Everything". Even chaos.