Bath time

As a mom there is very little down time in my life- atleast any that doesn't involve kids anyway. Years ago I decided the best way to get a few minutes alone would be to take a bath - kind of de-stress, have a little quiet time, and pray. The plan was to slip off to the bathroom close to bedtime and while Brad put the kids to bed, I would have my 20 minutes alone. That is rarely how it has gone.
On one evening when Brandt was about 4- I was very pregnant with Halle and we were down to one working bathroom. Brad had taken him off to bed and I was just settling my very large self into the tub when there was a frantic knock (more like beating) at the door. Brandt was yelling he HAS to come in- he HAS to go to the bathroom (remember we only have one)- so I do my very best with what seemed like tiny wash rags (really I think they were normal size- they just seemed tiny in proportion to my oversized preganant self)- to strategically cover areas and let him come in to use the bathroom. He burst through the door and in his hurry- his aim is off and he pees on me. Very relaxing.
It seems that whenever the kids hear the water running- it's like the Bat-signal for them to come running. Brandt went through several years when he was younger that whenever I took a bath he wanted to be in my bedroom playing some video game with lots of gun fighting. There is nothing quite so relaxing as heavy artillery fire in the next room.
Halle, however,will not settle for being in the room next to me. She wants to be right there in the bathroom with her, usually dirty, feet hanging in the tub. I can have worship music on, my devotional out- and she will just plop herself right down on the edge of the tub- put her feet in and as my water turns a murky brown from the dirt - she will launch, undeterred by the music or me reading, into a very important conversation about whatever is very important to her that evening. Last night, she stopped the converastion long enough to let me know the rag I just used to wash my face is the same rag she used the night before to clean her feet after the garage sale.
Nice.
And we can't forget Kenzie- she wants to have entire conversations with me through the bathroom door while the water is running which go a lot like this : " Mom..MOM."..."What?"..."Can I mmm gggrrrr pllllp?" "What?" "I said...nnlll to pppll?" "What
?? I CANNOT hear you?! Open the door!" to which she will finally open the door "I said can I go online and buy a pair of shoes?" "Kenzie, can this not wait 20 minutes?" "MOM- they only have one pair left in my size!"
It is amazing the things that become absolute emergencies once I am sitting naked in a foot of water. And where- you ask- is Brad during all this? I have asked myself the same thing. I mean, this started with him putting the kids to bed, right? But they are obviously not in bed since they are all in or near the bathroom with me. All I can figure is what has started out as "me" time has turned into "Brad" time. He's no dummy- he knows that water is like a magnet for those kids and I think as soon as he hears it- he's off doing who knows what because he knows as long as I'm in that tub he's got 20-30 minutes of undisturbed quiet.