Things I love: it's close to family. I grew up here so I know where almost everything is, good church with great people, and we have a nice homeschool group.
Things I do not love: traffic and crazy people. They often go hand in hand.
So yesterday....
I was driving from my house to my parents' house. Everywhere I go feels like it is on a time limit lately. Not only do 4 small children have short fuses, I have a 3 year old who recently potty trained and doesn't always realize he has to go until it's almost too late. He also doesn't like using strange bathrooms. There was an incident where he kind of fell in at Toys R Us. It was NOT on my watch. Hence, we have a potty in the van. It's simultaneously the most disgusting and ingenious idea ever. Whoever told me to have a potty in the van, I can't remember exactly who it was, but THANK YOU!
So I'm on the way to my mom and dad's house on a 4 lane road that has this median in the middle. Two teenage dudes are walking down it with their back toward me. One of them steps off of the median and starts walking in my lane. IN MY LANE!! And here I am about 5 seconds from plowing in to his behind! Luckily for him (and my windshield) I had just checked my blind spot and there was no one nearby, so I swerved in to the other lane and missed his sorry butt.
My first thought was not "thank God I missed that poor, stupid teenager and spared his skinny life." No. It was "thank God I didn't hit that kid because I really do not want to have to sit here with all the kids in the car while we wait for the cops and ambulance."
That sounds awful I know. I care about people I really do.
I also had this image in my head of a police officer coming up to question me as I hold my three year old on the portable car potty and telling him "sorry officer! I'll be with you in a moment! My kid has to pee pee."
That's where my priorities are lately. If it's me alone running errands with all 4 kids and the oldest yells "I have to potty!" it becomes a panic situation. I will yell "can you hold it for 10 minutes?" And then debate silently if I can make it home quicker than I can get everyone in to whatever the nearest business is with a public restroom. Trust me, it's often quicker to get home. "Have them go before you leave the house!" you say. Well, I do. But tiny bladders are just that--tiny. And sometimes a 30 minutes trip out of the house will still result in one panicked situation of needing the bathroom asap.
And this is why I drink coffee. Because if I had been less aware of some guy stepping in to the direct path of my vehicle and been a little slower, I would have had to give my testimony to a police officer while holding a kid on a portable potty on the side of a fairly busy road.
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