My Disneyland Epiphany

I know that I devised this blog originally as a place to vent my frustration and hold myself accountable for some changes for myself and my children.  And for those of you who have been following along since the beginning of this little journey (and seriously, if you've managed to stay with me, props to you) you know by now that I haven't made a great amount of progress.  Honestly by this point I was hoping that my kids would be chore doing fiends and I'd be a picture of organization with chore charts done, calendars made and that GIANT pile of clothes on my tub a thing of the  past.  But alas--that hasn't happened.

BUT--I have realized something recently.  Most anyone who knows us knows of our love for Disneyland and when the planets aligned, not only did I manage to find and marry a man with the same last name as me (Kristyn Morgan Morgan!) but I found someone who loved Disneyland even more than me!  And so, Disney is part of our family traditions and our children have quite literally grown up in the Magic Kingdom.

Now while I love taking my kids there--because my kids are pretty dang awesome--it hasn't always been easy.  First, there are 6 of them.  And we lose some of them.  A lot. (See previous post). Also, they need sunscreen.  And slicking up six kids takes FOREVER.  Then there is the whole food dilemma.  They are picky and finding a restaurant where they all will eat is nearly impossible.  (And it costs a fortune to feed them--churros alone could force you into bankruptcy. ) And so with that in mind Dave and I in recent years have taken to going to Disney once a year alone.  And it's awesome--I highly recommend it.  I don't have to lotion up anyone but myself and the top of Dave's head, we get to eat wherever and whenever we want and I don't have to carry or push anything!  This year we had the pleasure of running in the Disneyland 10K--and it was AMAZING!!!

What was even more amazing is that we leave our kids home--alone--when we go.  And they survive!  They get along, don't throw wild parties (that I know of), GET THEMSELVES TO CHURCH, and have the house clean when we return!  So that's something right?  So when I get frustrated with my progress or the dirty socks on the floor or the nest of towels in the bathroom, I have to remember that the percentage of teenagers who would roll out of bed on a Sunday morning to get themselves and their siblings ready for three hours of church starting at 9 am has got to be pretty small.  And that means that the Morgan's can't be a total mess right?  I mean somewhere along the line something sunk in and so while we are far from perfect I have great kids.  They may leave empty goldfish boxes and nesquick cans laying around but they are great kids.

Where Did I Put That Kid?

Do you ever feel like you're losing your mind?  Because most days I feel a little nuts.  Let me explain.  I was over at the school the other day fitting band kids for uniforms and while I can create a super organized system for outfitting 130 marchers I can't seem to keep track of my pen.  Or my measuring tape.  Or my lists.  What the heck?  And the sad thing is this isn't unusual for me.  A couple weeks ago I spent an hour looking for the can of spray paint I had in my hand literally 2 minutes prior to losing it.  Luckily I found it--two weeks later.  In my bathroom...

I was telling this to some friends the other day and I mentioned that it was a wonder I can keep track of 6 kids--and then I realized that I can't because we've lost all of them at some time.  Here's just a few of the many examples:

Church frenzy:  Every Sunday it's kind of an olympic dash to get six kids up, showered, fed (ok--who am I kidding, they don't get fed.  Just this Sunday Kennedy was sneaking peanut butter crackers during the opening hymn) dressed, loaded in the car and to church by 9:00 am.  One Sunday we arrived at church, slid into our pew and I looked over and we were missing one suit with a boy inside it.  Mr. Davis was not there.  So back home I went and proceeded to find him under a pile of blankets asleep.  In his suit.

Disneyland:  I have a whole series of experiences losing kids here but two stick out in my mind and they both involve McKay.  The first was when he was about 18 months old.  This was back in the day when Disneyland had these old rickety strollers with a canopy that prevented you from actually seeing your child once they were in the stroller--what genius invented that?  Clearly not a parent of six kids.  We were at the park with a bunch of Dave's family and I had McKay in the stroller and was headed from Tomorrowland over to the castle to meet some friends.  I got to the castle at which point our friends asked me why I was pushing an empty stroller.  I said, I wasn't, I had Mckay in there.  Only he wasn't in there--he'd hopped out somewhere between Space Mountain and the Castle.  After a few minutes of frantic searching he showed up at the Star Trader hanging out with a cast member.  Then several years later we lost him again.  One minute we were all together and the next we boarded Heimlich's Choo Choo and we only had 5 kids with us.  Mild panic set in and security was called.  I used to dress all the kids the same back then (they won't go for that so much anymore, dang it) and when they asked for a description I just said, "he looks like that one."  About 20 minutes later he turned up in the lost child center no worse for the wear.

I'd like to say I have some great insight into why I'm like this--or at least an idea of how to cure it.  But I don't because I just spent the last 7 minutes trying to remember this great idea I had for this paragraph of the blog.  I'm being serious--I just spent 7 minutes staring at the screen, wracking my brain for this clever idea I had not 10 minutes ago and it's gone.  So frustrating!  I've read about systems that are supposed to help me overcome this problem and they probably work--except I can't remember where I read that or what they are.  This is hopeless...