How to be an Awesome Mom

Perception is reality, right?  People see you as awesome, therefore you are awesome!  Let's look into that some more.  

Here is how I portray this afternoon:

I let the girls make sugar cookies this afternoon. I rolled out the dough and gave them cookie cutters and they had a marvelous time.

I love Delaney's face here.  She chose the hand and foot shaped cookie cutters and was hilarious as she gave a running commentary on the hands and feet she cut out. Marian was methodical and meticulous.

Rylee wanted the little cookie cutters and took the cutting very seriously. 

Yeah, Callie really needs her bangs cut.  She was also not pleased to have a picture taken.  She was really good at rolling out the dough and cutting decent cookies.  After the first batch, I sat back and let them do their own thing and they rolled and cut and nibbled to their heart's content.

Then Rylee got distracted by Levi and went to play with him.

Now that makes me sound like I am an awesome mom.  Again, it is all in how you portray it.  Let's talk about how it really went down:

I found a tub of sugar cookie dough at the commissary for half off.  I thought, Hmmm..... $1.77 is a good price and I bet the girls would have fun with it.  So I got it.  I needed a bribe for good behavior so I could nap in peace today, so I offered cookie-making if they would play nicely.  They must have because I didn't hear them at all while I napped.

When I got up I thought I was an idiot for promising such an activity, but I dutifully cleaned off the table, thawed the cookie dough and turned on the oven.  Then I spent 10 minutes shouting- get out of the way, I can't roll out the dough when you stand there, move your cookie-cutters, no you can't use the Christmas ones, that's your sister's spot, move out of my way, no the dough isn't ready, get your hands out of the flour, stop shoving your sister, don't make me put this all away, get your hands off your sister's dough, I'm going to beat you with my rolling pin, don't stand right in front of me while I'm trying to roll this out, stop putting your hands in the flour bin, don't swat the flour, stop hitting your sister..... and on and on.   And I thought how this wasn't much fun at all.  So I got them set up and walked away.  

Surprisingly, they all got on quite well for the next 30 minutes, rolling and cutting and helping each other.  I popped the pans in the oven and took them out, otherwise I stayed out of it. It degenerated after that and I had to confiscate the last of the dough.  

The moral of the story is that I can make it look like a lovely family activity that was glorious for all.  In reality, it was work and sometimes not much fun at all, and I had grumpy feelings.  When I blog about it though, I can make me sound like I totally rock.  So this is a reminder that when you see all those crafty blogs and happy children, know that reality was probably much different than what is being portrayed!  (Or maybe it is just me!)

Just to prove that to my children I really am awesome, I let them eat all the cookies they wanted.  (It was store bought dough, so they weren't very yummy cookies anyway.)