Dragon Mama

Today has been on of those days.

When I was about 3 and a half I asked my mom, "Mama, can you breathe fire like a dragon?"  Being a typical 3 year old, I asked many more questions, including, but not limited to, "Can God pick up the road?", "Does God use sissors?", "Can God kill Mr. T.?", "If I swallowed my gum, it wouldn't get stuck to God, it would go around my heart. Right?" 

We love to laugh at the things we said as children.  Joss is three years old and fully in that question asking stage.  She asks "WHY?" for ev.er.y.thing. I ask her to do. 
After the day I had today, I am quite shocked that none of my children asked if I could breathe fire like a dragon, because I definitely had a dragon day.
I really hate those kinds of days, too.  Those kinds of days always leave me feeling guilty after the kids have gone to bed, and I completely hate feeling like that.

I am a somewhat high strung person(shocker).  I might be laid back in some areas, but in general I think I'm high strung.  One of the unfortunate attributes of a high strung person is that they tend to be easily irritable.  If I were to deny being anything less than that, then my sister would totally laugh in my face(the reason she can laugh in my face, as opposed to punching it, is because we no longer share the same room and same bed, so our personality differences can now be laughed at).  Ok, so I am easily irritable.  It's something that I'm working on, and most of the time I don't let it conquer my day.  But today I did.  I was one fire breathin' dragon mamas today.  It doesn't help that I've been running on minimal sleep the last few days due to one feller who rather not sleep in his own bed and several other kiddos who have suddenly decided to consume mass quanities of water before bedtime.  It doesn't help that all but one of my kiddos has the crud of some sort.  I'm a light sleeper, so all I've heard is a chorus of barking seals all night long for the past few nights. 

All of those things factored into my dragon day.  BUT, that still doesn't excuse my behavior.  EVERYONE has stressors.  That is life.  As Christians we are required to rise above our flesh.  My flesh might say, "I'm tired! It is 10:45 and I still haven't had time to make coffee, which I DESPARATELY need, because I have been blowing noses, wiping bottoms, referreeing arguments, tying shoes, and answering 9,000,000 questions since 7:00am!"  Regardless of what my flesh says, though, I am still required to treat my children in the same loving and gentle manner that I require them to treat each other.  We speak in love.  We touch each other in gentleness.  We do not raise our voice in anger.

Goodness, knows I have broken those standards today.  There are some folks out there who would love to say, "That's what happens when you have six kids!"  But in my honesty I'll tell you that I have had my dragon mama moments when Luke was our only child.  "Dragon Mama" is purely a flesh thing, not a number-of-kids-you-have thing. 

This dragon mama is ready for today to be over so that I can start fresh tomorrow.  As much as they can bring out the dragon in me, I'm not sure if I could go a single day without my children.  I am blessed beyond measure by having the opportunity to be their mother.  This dragon mama has been tamed, atleast for tonight.