Tonight I decided my kids needed to eat more vegetables so I took them to Outback for dinner. I’m joking. Well sort of. We had a gift card so I thought it would be fun to go out in 15 degree weather and get dinner.
Can we talk about the weather for a minute. I realize that is all anybody is talking about these days, but WHAT THE HECK?!?!?! I’ve spent five winters in Maryland, four in Virginia, and two in West Virginia and it has never been this cold!!!
I heard my son letting the dog out and then I heard him yell… OH NO! NOT MORE SNOW!
Then about a half hour later my oldest son starts flipping out in the kitchen. He had just realized it was starting to snow. When the kids are sick of the snow it is time for it to stop snowing. I cannot wait to go to Florida!!! Two more weeks…. wooohooo!!!!
Okay- back to our day.
I only had the younger kids with me, so I walked in to Outback with five kids. The funny thing is that when I ONLY have five kids with me I feel like this is completely normal. I forget that most people think this is completely abnormal, and even more abnormal that I would do it without another adult.
We sat down at our booth and started to talk about the day, what we were going to order, and how long it would take to get the bread.
A lady came up to our table after we had been there for less than five minutes to tell me how when we walked in her friend remarked that I must be crazy for taking five kids out to dinner by myself, but then after they saw how well behaved the kids were they understood why I would do it.
I thanked her and she complimented the kids a few more times and then walked away. Then she came back and said something about how they were both public school teachers and they’d seen it all.
I always appreciate when people notice that my kids are able to act appropriately, although this almost guarantees that one of my kids is going to dump a glass of water all over the table, or fall out of their seat or fight over the last piece of bread.
I’m also fully aware that my kids are capable of more stupid in a day than most kids can do in a week. So I savor the moments when everyone is using inside voices, sitting on their rear ends, and eating with utensils not their fingers.
Today was a good day. We didn’t get everything accomplished that we needed to, but we had a great time at dinner and I’ve finally regained feeling in my extremities so I’m going to count it a win.
My husband has been deployed to the Middle East for 274 days. These are my real thoughts expressing my heart during his absence. I appreciate your prayers and kind words as we cope, adapt, and carry on without him until August 2014. To read from the beginning, click here.
Belinda says
Toni –
We used to get this all the time, when we would eat at Cracker Barrel, especially when we had all eight with us.
The children would love the compliments – it made them realize that they WERE well behaved AND people noticed!
Still praying!
~Belinda
Katena Dyser says
I thought that taking five kids to dinner was normal. I would get that all the time how do you do it with 6 boys. This is normal too me. We rarely go and when we do we set ground rules. Even my austic behaves well. It’s rare when we all go out to a sit down type restaurant it’s usually for a special occasion.
Angela O says
Your honesty blesses me so much and I so appreciate your willingness to be real with people you’ve never met. And of course, I appreciate your humor. You make me laugh a lot! I have followed your blog for about 4 or 5 years and I pray for you often, especially during this deployment.