I love the imaginations of toddlers, they never stop when they play. Their world is one of pretend, and there are days I envy the little people that I care for during the week. A world full of fun and play where the biggest problem they have is when the plastic, play tomato slices from the toy kitchen get stuck in the toy toaster because they have crammed 6 of those pieces in the slot. Then it’s “help me, I need help, it not work”.
Some days I feel like my world is full of my own tomatoes in the toaster, and it just “not work”. The ‘problems’ and complications are nothing major, small compared to what I see on the news, but those slices crammed and stuck in the toaster of my life still unsettle and disrupt my peace and harmony. Especially since they aren’t plastic pieces, these tend to be a bit more messy. I want to yell “help me, I need help” .
For example, trying to get breakfast on the table for a 1, 2 and 7yo first thing in the morning before they are coming in the door to spend the day at Miss Marti’s little in home daycare, while watching for the other 7yo’s school bus to arrive. The infant is crying to be fed or changed, coffee pot is now empty and those 3 that need feeding are due any moment. I open the cabinet to get out cereal bowls and there are none. The dishwasher is full of dirty dishes because no one noticed the night before, we were all gone or busy. Not sure why I thought it would be easier, but I opted to make scrambled eggs and toast so I could use plates that were already clean rather than wash 3 bowls by hand. Getting the baby settled down, full tummy and cooing at her cousin who is here waiting for her bus to come to take her to school, was one less slice of tomato in the toaster.
After driving the other 7yo to school and coming home, settling the rest into play time and getting a load of laundry in the washer, I was unloading the dishwasher and laughing at myself. I am a bit OCD when it comes to coffee cups. I get attached to one in particular for a while and I HAVE to have my coffee in that cup. No, it does not taste any better, it’s just that I am attached to a particular cup. There I was unloading every single one of the cups I have been stuck on, wondering if I’m just a major odd ball or do other people have to have their coffee in a particular mug to make their morning better? When I had went for that first cup of java this morning, none of the favored cups were clean, which totally set my morning off all wrong. I also had slept in 30 extra minutes, so my routine was out of sync. More tomatoes in my toaster.
From the outside, my toaster in life looks pretty cool to most. I am home all day, get to write, play computer games, watch TV, read, get cleaning and laundry done…what they do not see is that inside my colorful little toaster, are a lot of tomato slices jamming up the inner workings. Diapers, bus schedules, school car pool, feedings, dishes, laundry, “help me”, baby spit up on my shirt, someone is fussy, a nose is running, and many days just out and out chaos. In the middle of it all I’m trying to build my vanity crack (Avon) business into something big. But, I’d not trade my colorful little toaster of chaos and juicy tomato drippings for a clean, chrome, boring toaster for all the toast in the world. Pass the tomato slices, please!
Marti Gardner 
I truly love this post and your outlook on life.
Thanks…gotta just roll with it, makes it easier and way more entertaining 🙂
You are not alone. I have *that* coffee mug that makes the world a better place in the morning. Unfortunately, with only two of us in the house, we don’t have to run the dishwasher every day, so sometimes I will find myself staring into the cabinet and going “Crap. It’s okay. It will be okay. You can’t have that mug, but you can have the Tony Packo’s mug. It can be a Tony Packo day.” Yes – I literally have to walk myself through the change up. That might make me a little crazy, but it is what it is.
LOL mine is the Crazy Cat Lady mug, and I’m the same way, have to work through that in order to use a different one. I’m not above pulling it clean from the dishwasher later and dumping my coffee in it!