Sunday, March 21, 2010

"It's where?"

The weekend was spectacular with temperatures hovering in the low 70’s, not a cloud in the sky, and just enough of a breeze to remind you that we hadn’t headed into summer yet. With no particular place to be, we decided to hang around the house spending as much time outside as possible. Do you see the problem with this yet, or are you thinking what could possibly go wrong with everything so perfect? If you are a follower of old Murphy he has a law for this: “If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.”

I don’t think I’m a pessimist because I pride myself on having a positive outlook, preferring to “shake off” setbacks instead of dwelling on them, but when you are dealing with kids, anything is entirely feasible all the time. I am also a realist and just as I told a blogger friend tonight, with everything good there is always the chance that something bad may happen.

For the most part, this weekend was fantastic, so what happened to slightly tarnish this you ask? Well, think about it-we were hunkering down at home so that would mean a little more than usual “together time,” and when you spend more time with your family there is bound to be something, no matter how small, that gets on your nerves.

There was one phrase that seemed to resonate around our house from the moment the kids got off the bus until bed time tonight, and that phrase is (drum roll please): it’s where? It really doesn’t matter what it is-band aids, flip-flops, a basketball, the dog’s collar-it couldn’t be found anywhere. It seems that when the sun stays out everyone’s mind goes blank except for me-I became like the all powerful Oz himself, reconnecting my family with all their lost goods. The funny thing is (now it’s funny, but at the time it wasn’t), these things really weren’t lost, and sometimes they were staring them right in the face.


Case number 1:  My husband Friday night looking in the refrigerator for some peppers for his salad
 
Where are the peppers?”

“They’re in there.”

“I am looking and they aren’t here. Why can't I ever find anything in here?


And then he starts reorganizing (not!) the refrigerator shelves in search of the elusive jar of peppers. I start to give directions from my seat but soon realize it would be easier to get up and find them myself. And that I did, in about 30 seconds flat, a new record for finding elusive pepper jars I think...

Case number 2: My beautiful daughter.

(Me) “Put the orange peels in the bag on the sink, ok? I’ll put them in the compost later.”

“What bag?”

“The one on the counter.”

“I don’t see any bag.”

“There is a bag-I just put it there a minute ago. On the sink...”

“I still don’t see it” and she is looking right at it!

“The old hamburger bun bag on the sink. See it?”

“Oh, you mean that bag” uh, yea, that bag...

Case number 3: My little boy.

“Where is my other soccer shoe? Mom I can’t find my other shoe!”

“Look where you took it off.”

“Where did I take it off?”

Now how in the blazes was I supposed to know? I walked into the kitchen and there, lying in front of the refrigerator, was the lone shoe, and I am still puzzling over how it got there!

And this kind of thing could be contagious, because-
Case number 4: The great and powerful Oz (remember, he was human after all)

I decided to hang some laundry outside and couldn’t find the bag of clothespins. I started tearing around the house muttering things about people not putting things back, about the mess in the family room, and how it would be nice if someone(meaning my husband) would finally change the light bulb in the closet so I could look in there. I did eventually find the bag, right where I put it last-it was inside the large laundry basket just waiting for the next time I would need it... Here's hoping you always know where it is-goodnight everybody!



16 comments:

  1. When other kids we knew were having meltdowns because they couldn't find their favourite toy, my kids would say things like "Don't worry it'll turn up". That's our motto around here. We look for things for a certain amount of time, and if after a good look we can't find it, we shrug our shoulders and say "It'll turn up." and lo and behold it usually does.

    HOWEVER, now that MasterSix is going to school and there's soccer, swimming and kindy gym, the story is entirely different, because we inevitably lose something just before we need to walk out the door and the meltdown comes from me.

    I hear ya Susan!

    Thanks for stopping by today.

    Shelly

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  2. That sounds like my house! I even can find lost tools for my husband on "his" toolbench. Sometimes it is just faster for me to find the stuff but then it just seems like they don't try hard enough to look and just rely on me stopping what I'm doing to help them.

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  3. My 2 yr old couldn't find her Elmo backpack and we looked for it for 30 minutes.

    it was on her BACK!

    That's my life!

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  4. Susan, my 10 year old is always asking "where is this, where is that?" He drives me crazy every morning. I think gremlins move his stuff. I have to admit that I've been guilty of forgetting where I put things lately too. I need to get my OZ vibe going again! Have a great week my friend!!!

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  5. Shelly, everything seems to disappear over here.

    Tesa, your right on when you say it is much faster to just find the thing yourself!

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  6. September Mom, I am channeling Oz right now...

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  7. "The Girl," it was on her back the whole time, or was she just messing with you? I hope it was the latter... LOL!

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  8. Finder-of-all-objects is my job description. My 15 dd is the junior finder-of-all-objects. Neither of us understand why.

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  9. That is too funny! My mom is like you are! She ALWAYS knows where everything is....me NOT so much. I am glad that you were able to be outside for while though:)

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  10. LOL! too funny! I go through this every day. This morning as I am rushing out the door to drop our daughter to school, my husband follows me into the garage to ask me where the sugar was? "Are you kidding me" is what I thought. Here I am rushing out the door, getting two kids in the car and all he can think about is some stupid sugar. I told him it was in a plastic bag in the pantry. Ofcourse he could not find it. I had to get out of the car and get the bag for him! urghhhhh...

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  11. That is familiar. My so can't find his own toy in his toy box sometimes:) He thinks that I'm a magician :))

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  12. Susan T, maybe it is a woman thing? Hmm...

    Nicole, give it time and this "gift" (curse) will come.

    Areeba, why do husbands do this kind of stuff?

    Yonca, I guess we must train them young... LOL!

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  13. the hamburger bag cracked me up. My husband can never find anything, I've gotten to the point where I just get everything for him instead of telling him where it is!

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  14. We are still not above the 50's here so I am so jealous!

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  15. I have the same problem!! Only I don't call myself a wizard, I call myself the manager of the Lost and Found desk mwahahahaha

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