A great way to test the strength of how well your family functions together under stress is to routinely perform family teamwork exercises. There are many different ways this can be accomplished. You can make up games to play with one another or better yet, go for the real world test. This past Sunday we executed this exercise with flying colors, well mostly.
It started off like most Sundays. We lazily came to life. There was coffee and muffins. Children played and watched cartoons. Dogs were fed, babies were diapered, newspapers were read. The oldest child decides she wants to go to church. Hmmm, it’s a bit late I am thinking. The child that pouts to go to church is pretty much guaranteed of getting her way. I’m not going to be the one to tell her no. Alan muttered an “oh crap” and wasn’t about to say no either. Church starts at 10:00. It was 9:20 at this point. No one is dressed. No one is showered. Are you ready? ONE, TWO, THREE, GOOOO!!!!
I start hollering for the oldest to grab her clothes, anything clean will do. She is dressed in record time and I did not argue with her red, white, and blue farmer girl ensemble. I just asked her to bring her head to me so I could whip it into a pony tail. Somewhere in this the baby is crawling around just doing his thing. I hop in the shower and use the combo shampoo/conditioner to save time, shave the main parts, and hop out. The baby is getting into everything in the drawer so I holler for whoever is supposed to be watching him. I grab clothes for him and the oldest dresses him. Someone grabbed the clothes for the middle child. Amazingly they matched. I rake a comb through his hair and ask him to find his shoes. I holler for someone to stuff the dogs in their cages. Someone else obliges. I think the husband must have been doing something in the background.
My hair is twisted wet up into a knot which works the first time!!! That is where I thank my hair for its part in this team building exercise. Makeup is applied, teeth are brushed, shoes are on, and we are out the door. I have a soda waiting for me in the truck and kids are loaded! And to think, we were ONLY 5 minutes late. And I’m sure that was because we hit every stoplight on the way there. ;)