Sweat Pants and kids

I was married in the year 2000. It was a fun and exciting time. I love being married! One day, while walking through the grocery store with my so sweet new husband, we saw a lady walking around in HER SWEAT PANTS!!!  Yikes!! Can you believe the horror?  I turned to my husband and said in the sweetest, I'm the best wife in the world and I always will be, voice " Honey, if I EVER EVER get to the point in our marriage where I feel like I can go to the grocery store with my hair a mess, in my slippers and grungy sweat pants, please, I beg of you, please just say to me... remember the time we were in the grocery store and saw the lady in the sweat pants? I PROMISE that I will thank you for the reminder!!!".  
Fast forward 2 years. We have a new, sweet little baby. We are AMAZING parents and have the worlds most perfect baby. Our marriage is great. I dress every morning for my husband before he leaves for the day. Our daughter smells and looks nice all the time... and i do too! No sweat pants for me!
Move ahead another year. Another child. Marriage and kids has been kind to me. My kids are always color coordinated and always in bed on time. I still do my hair and make up every day and for the most part, my wonderful husband and I coordinate our outfits with the kids!  No need for a "No sweat pant" reminder this year!!
Move ahead to a move across the country and baby #3. I still get dressed and do my make up every day, however, I do chop my hair because it simply takes up too much of my life!! My kids clothes still all coordinate and they are darling. Travis and I rarely coordinate with them anymore. Oh well, we are NEARLY perfect. 
Next stop on memory lane... kid number 4- after a move across the country, a new business and living in an isolated place, I quickly decide that make up is overrated! I rarely go out. I try to swipe on mascara each evening before Travis gets home. But 4 kids is EXHAUSTING!! And we are both so very busy!
Last stop on this tour..... unexpected baby #5 literally dropped into our laps! Very unexpected and super UNPREPARED for!  I think, how hard can this be?  Just add one more to the mix.... WHOA! I spend 12-15 hours a day with baby on my chest, focusing on the bonding and recreating a womb like experience for him. Most days I slip on a velour jogging suit and pull my hair in a ponytail. No makeup. Ever. No dinner. Ever. My house falls apart for the FIRST  TIME! I hire a cleaning lady. My laundry starts to pile up. I start to think baby blues are experienced by all women even when they don't actually carry and deliver the baby. I am SO VERY EXHAUSTED. I am trying to keep up with 4 other very active kids and my best friend has a baby in the hospital for a month, so I have no one I can ask for help. I feel like I am drowning. No one thinks to offer help, because he is just a foster baby. I didn't actually carry and birth him, so I must be OK.  My hubby says "I thought it would be easier on both of us if we didn't have to deal with the physical aspect of having a baby". Nope.  I was still working out at 5 am every day and volunteering in all my kids class rooms and visiting teaching and coaching and fitting in all the foster visits and doctors and social workers and therapy and birth-mom visits.... OK. 

(me in my sweats and ponytail)

Fast forward to now, things are busy- really busy. I wear make up when I can, and try my best to put on clothes every morning (mostly).... last month my hubby and I are at the grocery store and I have donned a sweat suit with no make up and my hair pulled in a pony. I believe I have slippers on, too.  My husband, my sweet and loving, nearly perfect husband turns to me and says, in a super duper sweet voice "Do you remember that time when you told me that I should tell you if you ever walk into a grocery store in your sweats?"..... WHOA!!!  The look I gave him could freeze a lake!!! He immediately shut up and then tries to back himself out of that corner "not that it bothers me, you just told me to tell you and so I did, but I LOVE YOU and even in sweats you are the most BEAUTIFUL woman in the world". I think I may have actually GROWLED at him!! Then stomped to the chocolate aisle!! 
So,  now I can look at this story and laugh. I laugh at how naive and self centered I was all those years ago. My husband would still never be caught dead in sweat pants in public, and I'm OK with that. I wish that were the case for me. But, I am improvising. Every day.  I am loving my kids and trying to create memories. I guess that I am more worried about how I am trying to be a good mom than about how I look. I hope they know that about me. I could have taken the extra time to put on make up and do my hair every day, but that is time taken away from them. I am super busy with 5 kids. I know everyone is busy nowadays. I want my kids to know that I dress up for their dad, church and pictures.... and every thing else is a bonus!! I love them. I want them to know that. Above all else, I love them and I am so blessed to be their mom.