chaos, crickets and cheesy macaroni

Steve bought Josh an African Bull Frog for his birthday.  This was not my idea of a good time.  I felt that the last thing we needed was another mess-making creature in the house.  But Josh loves all things nature.  So Steve arranged a terrarium with bark and moss and water and turned the light on. And twice that evening Josh led me by the hand into his room saying "look how beautiful it is mom."  So my hard heart was melted.

For a while.  Frogs have to eat and recently it's been too cold for Josh to find crickets outside.  So last week I begrudgingly stopped at a pet store and bought 20 wiggling crickets.  And yes I was muttering the whole time.  Only to get home and find out that Steve had also brought home 20 crickets.  We put the 40 crickets in the cricket cage next to the frog home.

The next morning right before school I heard a crash.  We ran upstairs to find that our puppy had chased our cat upstairs.  And our cat had gotten enthralled with the jumping crickets and knocked their cage down to get a closer look.  And now, 20 minutes before school started, there were almost 40 crickets, a cat and a dog on the loose.

This is my life.  More often than I'd like to admit.  Chaos.  Everyone catching crickets. Leaves tramped in all over the floors.  Laundry piles.  A kitchen that looks like a hurricane hit.   I am a person who craves order and structure and peace.  I long for a cricket free life. Too bad for me....

I read in Real Simple this summer that you should make your bed first thing because it increases your energy level and establishes control from the core of your house.  I have made my bed every morning since.  Though my room looks nice, I'm still waiting to achieve core control.

I recently found this quote -"You've got to embrace the chaos.  That way, life just astonishes you." (is this wisdom really from Hot Tub Time Machine?)  So as I chase crickets, I am practicing flexibility and embracing chaos.

On Sunday night Jake's mattress was still downstairs from our family Friday night sleep over.  He was too tired to haul it upstairs so he grabbed his blankets and headed to the guest room.  Josh woke up 30 minutes later complaining that the crickets were chirping from their cage.  So he came downstairs and fell asleep on Jake's mattress in my room.  I took my computer to the living room while Steve fell asleep in the man cave watching football.   11 pm on Sunday night, the crickets were causing problems again and no one was in their right beds.  A little chaos and I am just ready to be astonished.

But the best lesson in flexibility came Monday morning.  My nephew Gabe turned 7.  As he typically does, he requested macaroni and cheese when asked what he wanted to eat.  And as usual his mother reminded him that macaroni and cheese is not a breakfast food.  My mom was there and whispered that Jenny should shock him and fix it for his birthday breakfast.  So Monday morning, the birthday boy walked into his kitchen to discover the most out of order, unstructured, delicious mac and cheese breakfast of all times.  He was astonished.  And thrilled.

Hearing about it melted my cricket chasing heart again.