Spills

Today I woke up feeling sick... but I was still ready to have a good day... I thought hot chocolate for the kids would be a fun way to start the day. As I got their little mugs ready, the anticipation was growing by the second. "mommy!! Can we have a marshmallow too?!", "yeah! Mommy!" I got them all situated on our bar stools, place mats on the counter and their little mugs with fresh hot chocolate and of course a giant marshmallow to make it complete. They were using their new straws they just "won" at Chucky Cheese last night enjoying every gulp and slurp... Samuel, as usual, finished first and then jumped down and was off to play- happy and content as ever... Serenity however was taking her sweet time- slurping out of the straw, reaching in and getting the marshmallow, putting the marshmallow back, slurping again~and the process was repeated over and over again. At this point I decided it would be a good time to get some cleaning done... So I started to tackle the "junk drawer" in our kitchen. My backed turned away from serenity I started my project. Moments later that is when I heard it... CRASH!!! Being that my back was still turned away from the scene, I told myself to take a deep breath... as I slowly turned around, Serenity, wide eyed with wonder, looked at me and said, "spilled!?". I now walked quickly over to her spot and saw the hot chocolate that was once nicely in a little mug with a perfect marshmallow on top... was now ALL over my kitchen floor... and my kitchen table.... and my kitchen hutch...and my kitchen walls!! and of course all over wide-eyed Serenity. While I quickly sprung into action there was one reminder that was echoing through my mind.... "Never go without a sippy cup for children under the age of two!!!!!" Well, the mess is all cleaned up. The floors are mopped. Serenity is all cleaned up and they have already long forgotten about the mess... But these little messes remind me that in just a couple years, serenity will be Samuel's age- slurping down her hot chocolate no problem and the spills and messes will become less and less... and my need for cleaning up their "spills" will slowly but surely evaporate. So even though I woke up feeling sick, and the hot chocolate idea didn't exactly turn out how I imagined... I will choose to cherish every "spill" I am privileged to clean up in their little lives...