Live Like Your Hair is on Fire

This is one of my sister's favorite sayings...she has MANY! As a wife, business owner, and mother of 3 very energetic, active children (11, 8, & 5), I don't know how she gets out of bed in the mornings! But she always does, and remarkably, she always has a great attitude throughout the day--no matter who punched who, or who got in trouble at school or who has or is crying! Not only does she just get out of bed, but she always, never failing, has devotions with the children before going to school and prays with them at the breakfast table! Most days when I visit (and that is most days!), she has a house full of children who are not her own, and she's going about her business in the most graceful, orderly manner possible! I would be a nervous wreck trying to run a business from my home with AT LEAST 6 children running around, but that's usually how her daily routine works...and it does WORK!

And her husband, bless him, he leaves for work at 7am and if he's lucky gets home between 8-9pm (college baseball coach); if the house is full of kids or adults or both, he just struts in and is always as complacent as can be regardless of what he walks into! This amazes me to the point where I actually TRY to be there when he comes home just so that I can witness his nonchalantness toward the whole situation! I've come to realize that the more chaos there is at her house, the more normal it seems to be for everyone--myself included! Numerous kids in the house, boys & girls playing together & sometimes fighting with each other has become such a regular occurrence when I visit that if the house isn't full of active little ones I find myself asking where everyone is!

With her basement full of wii games, a pool table, ping pong table, basketball hoops, hockey table, and a huge backyard with a trampoline, play set, and their very own pitcher's mound, it's no wonder her house is the 'cool' house of all the friends, myself and my husband included! There is one kid in their neighborhood who is always waiting on their front steps for them when they get home from school--no joke! They want to come play, but especially spend the night! Isn't that the best? When you get to spend the night at the cool house on the weekends? I've always thought it better to have the 'cool' house, but my nieces & nephews try to prove me wrong--you see, to them, it's just 'home'--and it's no fun unless their friends are there to enjoy all the toys and games with them!

It's a wonder anything productive gets accomplished in the house at all, but everyday--it does! And everything gets done with the children helping out in the right way and with good attitudes! I sometimes like to just sit back and watch everything from a silent distance to see how it all plays out--just waiting for my sister to go postal over something, but whenever it starts creeping up on her, she always says, 'No-I'm not taking a left today. I'm taking a right to Positiville and that's where I'm staying.' She has all these great sayings and quotes that help get her through her day; for instance, when one of her kids does something terribly wrong, like spilling fake blood from their halloween mask all over her beautiful area rug--and you can tell from her eyes that she's about to lose it--she simply gets up, grabs the cleaners, shows the kid how to use it, and makes them clean it up--and like the poltergeist, she turns and simply says, 'Good Times'! in her most sarcastic voice! I can tell she wants to explode and I think why don't you?! I've seen you do it before!! But I know now why she doesn't explode everytime--it's because it's simply not worth it.

Don't get me wrong, we are not a family of ones who don't believe in discipline or spankings, we got them and we give them when needed! But she's explained to me that she doesn't want her children to grow up and remember her as the loose cannon they always had to walk on egg shells around. When it comes down to it, the rug, as beautiful as it may be, is still just a rug! It can be replaced, and will probably have to be eventually anyway, but her children, well there's no replacing them!

I spend alot of time with her family, and I've asked her several times throughout the course of a day with them, 'Why & how did you wake up this morning?!' And she'll always give me one of her quirky pick-me-up sayings. There are days when I'm down or discouraged or just in a bad mood and she'll have some cheerful advice for ME, the one without kids or a business to manage! She should be the one getting some positive guidance, but she never seems to need it! She amazes me how she is the eternal optimist with all she's got going on! One of her most recent favorite saying is 'Aspire to Inspire Before You Expire'! And she definitely does!

No doubt there is a special place in Heaven for mothers, but I hope there is a reserved section for the spunky, vivacious ones who don't let anything weigh them down (even wings!) to where they can't always be an inspiration for others. She aims to live each day like her hair is on fire, and I must say she manages it very well!