Now THAT'S a compliment...

Today, after picking Olivia up from school (which was a million times better than the dropping-off part this morning), I needed to go to Walmart to restock on juice boxes and stuff. All went as well as it ever does until we hit the checkout lane. They wanted candy, which I said they could have IF they behaved while we were in line.

They did not.

So no candy.

So commence the wailing.

There was a nice-looking lady ahead of me in line. She turned around and asked me how old the girls where. I answered "almost 5, 3, and 19 months." Normally, the reaction I get with that answer is the person's jaw dropping to the floor and usually the phrase, "you have your hands full!" Not this time. I got a knowing nod. Like she understood somehow. I almost never find someone who understands. Even my own mother thinks I lost my marbles.

She smiled at me and said, "I had 7 kids in 10 years." Wow. First of all, I have to give her kudos for the 7 kids. I stopped at 3 because I didn't think I could handle more. She had 7... seven... 4 more than I have. Secondly, she had a baby on average every 17 months. I don't know the exact spacing of her kids. All I know is that she has 3 sons that are 20, 19, and 18. There could be twins, I don't know. It doesn't matter. 7 kids in 10 years. If the 20 year old is the oldest, the youngest would be 10. She's survived at least 10 years of 7 closely-spaced children.

She had a full head of hair.

She wasn't wearing a straight jacket.

She obviously was not in jail so she must not have killed any of them.

She is my hero.

When she got done paying, before she turned around, she looked at me... me, who was trying to not join in screaming with my kids... and said, "Keep up the good work!"

I'm sure almost everyone else in hearing distance probably thought she was being sarcastic... my kids were literally screaming and being a major nuisance. But she wasn't. I'm sure of it. I was very proud of myself then. If she, someone who was in my shoes times 2 and then add one more, if she says I'm doing a good job, then everyone else who thought I needed to get my screaming demons out of the store needs to bite my big toe. They don't know crap about having 3 kids under the age of 5.