A Human Nature Mirror

Shortly after Luke and I moved into our new house I got an intense craving for chicken spaghetti. My very favorite recipe to use is the Pioneer Woman's recipe (which is fabulous and even great as leftovers).

I went to the store after work, got all the ingredients I needed and headed home with thoughts of noodles baked in a creamy cheese mixture delight running through my head.

I could not wait to sit down and eat my meal.

I had cooked my chicken, chopped my veggies and was boiling the noodles. The oven was preheating in anticipation of cooking one of the best casseroles ever.

I checked my noodles and they were just how I like them, not mushy and not too hard....I think it's called al dente but this isn't a recipe blog so don't quote me on that.

This is where the story goes downhill quick.

I was straining the water out my noodles in the sink when somehow, someway, my awesome Dollar Tree plastic strainer slipped and every single noodle goodness that I had in my house fell and went down the drain. And those that didn't go down the drain were sitting in my nasty sink.

It was like a chicken spaghetti nightmare. I couldn't see straight, I couldn't think straight, I did the only thing that came naturally.

I screamed and picked up the strainer and through it across the room.

Luke came running from the back to see why I had screamed. I stood there crying as I explained to him that my only craving in the entire world (on that night) had been ruined.

He started laughing because apparently a 27 year old woman throwing a strainer across the room and crying over spilled spaghetti is hilarious.

I'm not proud of that moment, but it was my human nature taking over.

Last week Eli and I were playing in his room with his trains. The boys loves trains and especially loves to drive them on his tracks.

However, as a two year old, sometimes his hands don't exactly do what I know it is his mind is telling them to do.

He is still learning coordination when it comes to his hands and those small, fine movements.

Well on this particular day he couldn't get is trains on the tracks. He has done it before, but today it wasn't happening. He wanted them on just perfectly and they wouldn't go on there, he would move the train to the left slightly or move it to the right slightly and this already OCD perfectionist child was not happy that he could not get the trains on the track.

So he did what came natural to him.

He screamed, threw his choo choos and started crying.

And just like that I was staring into a human nature mirror.

I can assure you I haven't thrown anything across the room since that fateful chicken spaghetti day, so it's not like Eli picked up that habit from watching me. He is my flesh and blood, I am passing down traits to him both good and unfortunately bad and I don't even know what traits he is going to reveal!

As I sat there dodging several trains being thrown in my direction it was a weird realization that Eli will battle the same things I do.

Try as I might to lead him in the right way, teach him the ways of the Lord and so on, there are times when human nature takes over. And even times when I will see him making the same mistakes I have made.

I guess it's all apart of the parenting process.

I used the moment to explain to Eli that we don't throw things when we get angry which I'm sure sounded a little bit like the adults do in the Charlie Brown cartoons, but at least I tried.

And it was a lesson for me also, I guess this parenting thing isn't just about teaching, but we get to learn along the way.

I just hope Eli doesn't pick up my trait of intense food cravings. Nothing good can come from that.