All You Need is Fath, Trust, and Pixie Dust

I've been thinking a lot about Peter Pan lately. Peter, the Lost Boys, Captain Hook and his sidekick Mr. Smee consume a large part of our day to day life. 

We watch Peter Pan at LEAST a million times a week. We watch Jake and the Neverland Pirates, we watch Tinkerbell movies. And lets not forget one of my favorite movies, Hook, the one with Robin Williams. (Rufio! Rufio! Ru-fi-oooooo!)
 

 And we play. We pretend. Sometimes, Savannah is Peter and I'm that dastardly Hook. Other times, when she's feeling a little mischievous, she will be Hook and I'm Tigerlilly and she's trying to capture me. We chase our shadows, and one time, I even caught her scrubbing her feet furiously with a bar of soap, and when I asked what she was doing, she said "I'm trying to get my shadow back on!" She asks to wear her Tinkerbell costume everywhere. And she talks like a pirate constantly. I'll ask her to go grab Deagan and diaper, and she will salute me and sharply reply "Aye, aye sir!"

She will fill her backpack with snacks and toys, then march into whatever room I'm in and say "Hey Mom, I'm going to Neverland ok? I'll see you later!" and then runs off into another room.

And her grandpa Peacock bought her a Jake, Hook and crocodile figures, and her Grandma Stokes bought her the Jolly Roger ship. Oh boy, she's in heaven!

^Playing with Jake and Hook while waiting for our food, then carrying them in her pockets^

And these last couple of weeks when I tuck my little pirate in bed to dream of mermaids and Indians, I sit down to catch up on Once Upon a Time (I have to say, Hook is much more handsome than he is in the cartoon... Juuuuussssttt sayin'.)

So as you can see, we are kind of Peter Pan experts around here. 

Today, I was thinking about that saying "little girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice, and little boys are made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails." And as I watched Savannah wave her fake hook in Deagan's face and watched him giggle and try to grab for it, I thought "My children are made of faith, trust, and pixie dust."

The last several months have been a bit of a roller coaster for me. Between having a baby and adjusting to two babies (going from one to two is SO much harder than going from zero to one, just FYI) And then trying to keep up on housework, then school started and I'm battling the financial aid office to get my grant sorted out. Then the fact that I no longer have health insurance and I've got to get that all figured out. And trying to make friends in my ward and volunteering for events, and trying my best to be a good mom, and trying not to ask my parents for too much help, and being a supportive wife. And bills, and obligations, and stress and, and, and...

Well, some days I just feel like crawling under my blanket and never moving. It took all I had to get out of my sweats and into real pants to run to the bank today. I was not going to even think about washing my hair or put on makeup.

Some days I wish I really was in Neverland. Always being a child and never growing up, with no responsibility and no hardships and adventure at every turn. With fairies and pirates, and mermaids and Indians. Not testing center clerks who don't know what they are doing, or financial aid bureaucracy hoops to jump through, or how about door-to-door salesmen? I'd take a pirate over a salesman any day.

And then bedtime came and neither kid wanted to go to bed. My dad came over to grab something he had left here and ended up helping me put Savannah to bed, with no meltdowns from her, and I stuck Deagan in the jumper until he wore himself out.

But when I went to go check on the both of them later, I could see in their sleepy faces everything that I need to get me through the stressful times.

Faith, trust, and a little bit of pixie dust.

 

And it's because of them, that I don't every truly have to grow up. I can play and be a kid right there with them. And that's when I realized that my home is it's own special version of Neverland. Pirates and pixies and all.