Do you ever hear circus music playing in your head? You know, the calliope, the fun and slightly creepy happy tune?

Welcome to our circus.

In Ring One…

It was time to feed the baby. It usually is! I heard Sam beating on the bathroom door downstairs. And I heard Mira crying.

I went to investigate and discovered that Willa had locked herself in the bathroom with Mira. And suddenly Mira didn’t like it. Fortunately, Willa is able to unlock doors (most of the time), probably because she’s got such a proclivity for locking them.

I opened the door and discovered they’d done more than just hang out in the bathroom. The contents of the toilet (which had NOT been recently flushed) were sloshed all over the room. There was standing water on the floor. And they’d filled the little potty with flush water as well.

They stood and looked up at me with that “we’re busted” look in their eyes.

I stood in the puddle of potty water and asked for silence while I talked out loud to myself. “Deep breath. Prioritize. First thing: clean the bodies.”

I began handing out assignments at a rapid rate while the baby began to cry and I raced for the shower. “Ian, you keep Finn happy. Ellen, I need towels and a rag for two, please.”

I tossed the two delinquents in the shower and managed to only get myself half-soaked while I scrubbed them off as quickly as possible. It took me ten minutes to get them showered and dressed. We left a trail behind us of wet clothes, wet diapers, and wet towels.

I made it back to my baby in ten minutes, which was nine minutes longer than he would have liked, but still pretty good time.

Maybe I have a future career as a member of the pit crew at a race track.

In Ring Two…

Nap time. Sort of. I was nursing the baby, the little girls were napping, and the four big kids were playing on the ipad. Our smoke alarm went off. Just once. “Beep beep beep.”

A wild-eyed child appeared in my room. “Is there a fire?”

I reassured them it was just a fluke and that we were all safe. “It stopped, buddy. It’s fine.”

Whichever child it was apparently heard nothing of my reassurances. And he definitely didn’t pass them along to his siblings. Five seconds later, I heard wailing begin upstairs from the napping quarters. I figured the noise had woken up the girls and I began working on getting Finn unattached so I could check on things.

I was proud to hear the siblings upstairs, obviously helping to soothe their sisters, so I slowed my movements. And then I heard a house door open and close.

After thirty seconds of utter silence, I launched out of bed, Finn still holding on with his Jaws of Life, and went in search of all the people.

I ran into them as they came back in the door. “Mommy, did you find the fire? We got everybody out, we went to the meeting place.”

Bless ‘em. They had their own little fire drill, right in the middle of nap time. They’d even “rescued” the young ones and hauled them outside. I was so proud of them for remembering the plan and looking out for each other that I couldn’t fault them for ending nap time an hour early.

I handed out snacks and rewarded them with some TV time. Their poor little nerves were frayed. It took another five minutes to convince them there had not been any danger at all.

And in Center Ring…

We have this little guy:

He is my Ring Master these days. All that’s missing is the top hat. I perform according to his whims.

And while I’m tired and overwhelmed, it’s the good kind. The kind that comes from just pouring out all you’ve got and praying for grace to pour more.

It’s morning again. I breathe a prayer and we fire up the calliope music once more…