Confession 70: The Mystery of the Every-Other-Day Shower Revealed

I love hot showers. Don't worry, this isn't going to get icky. I just love hot showers. Hot showers to me in the morning are what a strong cup of fresh-brewed coffee is to other people. Enveloped in steam, my brain begins to un-fog from sleep. I contemplate the day ahead, rejuvenate, think through lessons and conversations, contemplate theology, pray. I don't know what it is, but I do some of my best and most creative thinking in the shower. It must be all of the positive ions floating around. Regardless, for almost twenty years, I have greeted each new day with a hot shower. It has always puzzled me how other people can get up in the morning and go without a hot shower. And then I realized, THEY HAVE CHILDREN!!!

When you have two toddlers running around the house, you don't even get to pee in privacy, let alone take a contemplative shower. I've found that children come with some sort of built-in Mommy radar that alerts them whenever you get out of bed. I can't tell you how many times I've turned the shower on to warm up, only to have to turn it off again thirty seconds later because someone is calling, "Mama! Mama! Mahhhhmahhh!" Hot showers have become a true luxury for me, for even when I manage to get into the shower and wash, it is interspersed with yells into the bathroom of: "Garrett, get out of the dog's crate!", "Stephen, put that down!", "Get your brother out of the toilet!", "Bring those towels back, dog!" Then there's the trick of shaving your legs with one hand while holding the shower door closed with the other to prevent your 1 and1/2 year old from letting the puppy in and saying hello. My water refuge has become anything but.

So where does that leave me? Like so many other parents of toddlers, the coffee maker has become my new best friend. I stick to decaf, mostly, but am absolutely addicted to CoffeeMate. While it doesn't surround me with positive ions, my morning cup of coffee steams my face, allows me to breathe deeply of pleasing aromas, and clears my head of the previous night's sleep. All in all, not a completely bad trade-off. And, I still have my hair straightener. Thank God for the Chi and Bath and Body body mist!! Yet the most wonderful part of giving up my morning shower ritual--3o extra minutes of sleep!!

Blessings and Peace,
Sara