As a mother of boys who grew up in
a household of sisters, raising boys never ceases to amaze and teach me. For instance, the phrases that actually come
out of my mouth to the amounts of groceries that we buy, raising boys always
leaves me with a feeling of bewilderment.
In a household of sisters, grocery
shopping is much different than in a household of boys. With girls, we had contests challenging who
could eat the least. Sure we would tempt
each other with donuts and when one of us would cave, the other two would
explain, “A minute on your lips, forever on your hips,” in an antagonizing tone,
but it was always in good fun. We would
only eat a ton of food if the other two promised to as well. Boys on the other hand, constantly make a
contest competing over who can eat more!
It does not matter what it is,
meat, fruits, vegetables, sweets, it doesn’t make any difference! They eat and eat! Every time I go to the grocery store, someone
comments on the amount of groceries in my cart!
The boys insist on bringing their lunch every day, whereas typical
children will eat at school, giving their mothers one less meal to fix but no,
not these boys. And you can bet there is
always a box of fruit snacks in the cart, because I have learned that they are
magic morsels that help us get Jacob through an entire church service. He nearly salivates begging for a hit the
minute he sees a package of gummies. The
funny part about our grocery cart, although it is always overflowing, it never
has meat, eggs, jam or corn because we always keep a year supply of that in
our freezer from the farm, which make my cart even more ridiculous!
The phrases that flow out of my
mouth also always astound me. For
example I had to explain, “No, you may not keep a container of worms and mud in
the house.” To me this is a no brainer
but not to boys who love to fish. This
weekend I stated, “Please do not walk on the porch with dead squirrels in your
hand.” Really? This is something that has to be said aloud
when you have boys?
Even though they are messy and I
may one day have to get a second job to pay the grocery bill, I would not want
my life any other way. They are smart
too! The other day when I asked Carson
and Gavin to do something for me and they gave me lip, Robert said, “What have
I told you?” They quickly responded, “We know, if mommy isn’t happy, no one is!”
