Chaos & Cooperation

We have a Fisher & Paykel upside down fridge.  We've had it for about 7 years now and I do love it.  Occasionally the freezer door will be left ajar for a little too long a few too many times and the bit that draws cold air from the bottom to the top will ice over, the fridge stops getting cold and the whole lot needs to be defrosted.

It happened on Tuesday night.

On Tuesday night it was about 4 degrees.  I was in the middle of

• making chocolate chip cookies for Charlotte's class
• spinach triangles for Sebastian's class and
• dinner, we had two of our nieces coming over...except...

Steven was on site.

I called him and cried.  The contents of the fridge needed to me moved to the outside fridge and I was up to my elbows in spinach and cheese mixture and juggling trays in and out of the oven.  He suggested asking the kids to help.  I responded in my three year old pouty voice saying 'no they won't'.

I started emptying out the fridge and before long I was asked what I was doing, I calmly explained and asked if they would help me out by emptying the contents of the back fridge on to our outdoor table.

Turns out that I completely underestimated my kids.

The big girls got to work and emptied out the fridge, Sebastian helped me out and J just kind of floated around in her typical three year old way.  As soon as the back fridge was empty Sebastian started ferrying things out to the girls and they all got stuck in to finding spots for everything.

They were amazing.

They cooperated and got in there and got the job done for me.  Not a cross word or complaint between them.  It made me feel so proud of them, and I told them so, eight times, and hugged and kissed them.

I emptied all of the random leftovers and their associated cultures in to the bin.

Steven came home the next night and emptied the freezer and defrosted the lot.  It was so cold in the next 24 hours that everything in the esky, including the bag of ice, remained frozen solid.

Ultimately I was rewarded with a sparkling clean fridge, dinner was cooked in time, Charlotte had choc chip cookies to share with her class and Sebastian had his spinach triangles to take.  It seems that storm clouds do have silver linings after all.

Do you ever have a little tantrum when it all gets to much?  Do your kids come to your rescue on the odd occasion?

Tatum xx