A Day in the Life

The smell lingers into my room from under my door. That smell is what helps get me out of bed on Sunday mornings. Not only does the smell wake me up, but the six other screaming children are always a guaranteed alarm clock as well. I roll out of bed, opened the door and as always, the chaos begins. My five other brothers and sisters consume most of our small kitchen. My mother is cooking bacon, screaming here and there about being burned by the flying grease that pops and splatters in any direction. She has Louie, my youngest brother, in her arms and is pointing a spatula at Kim and Sarah yelling at them to stop fighting. Jared, my 9-year-old brother is the only one who is ever calm. He is sitting at the table reading a mystery novel, clearly trying to zone out all the commotion. I can’t blame him for at least trying. As for me, well my mom depends on me too much for me to ever get away with reading at a time like this. I’m the oldest so she expects me to help out a lot, without complaining. This can be very difficult at times but being a single mom is hard enough, especially while running this zoo every day, so I don’t mind.

I help her get the scrambled eggs onto eight separate paper plates with a slice of bacon and a piece of toast on each one. We all take a seat around our over-sized table and take the hands of the people on either side of us. This is the only semi-quiet part of the entire breakfast. As my mom is saying a quick prayer, Sarah pinches Kim halfway through and Kim lets out a blood-curdling scream. Great, so much for a moment of peace and quiet. After yelling at Sarah about not pinching her sister for a good two minutes, my mom finally lets out a large sigh in an attempt to eat her breakfast. That sigh was shortly followed by, “Oh no, Cooper!” Cooper is my two-year old brother; he just spilt Sarah’s juice. I quickly grab a wet rag and clean it up. I don’t think we have ever gone through an entire meal without at least one spill. And although the chaos seems unbearable at times, I wouldn’t have it any other way.