Honey Do

I read the other day in Family Fun magazine that children tend to mirror their parents moods.

The author of this particular article is a mom of two girls. She lamented upon how crazy things get at her house when she is in a bad mood and how her girls tend to emulate her crankiness. Her simplistic reminder for us readers is that "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar". She writes, " When you or your children are acting like vinegar, ask yourself...where is the honey?"

I wonder how she would handle four crying out loud when she became grumpy.

I am sitting in my parents upstairs office trying to change my mood. We leave for Mississippi tomorrow and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by all that needs to be packed for our 14 hour road-trip. My kids definitely picked up on my stress. Jack and Gus were screaming loudly at each other for some mundane reason, Rebecca was yelling at them to be quiet; Nick had decided to ignore my third command to take a bath, and my husband was taking a nap through it all. Grrrrrrr. Meanwhile, I'm working up a sweat doing the laundry, packing suitcases, folding sheets and finding Playmobil pieces that have been dropped all over the house.

"Where is the honey?", I ask myself.

I packed it in the suitcase.