restarting our morning
When my day started with a coughing Katie Bear up for the day at five, I wasn't thrilled.
When it seemed to continue with one inconvenience after another, I began to feel a little annoyed. (An example? I opened a new container of peanuts, a new box of raisins, and a new bag of chocolate chips and dumped them all into a jar to replenish our trail mix. I then turned and somehow spilled the. entire. jar. all over the floor. Another example? Without checking with me, Katie decided she wanted to dump the contents of her little potty into the big toilet on her own. You can imagine how this ended up.)
When my laptop froze up and had to be restarted, causing the photo book project I spent two hours on last night to be lost, I moved from annoyed to frustrated.
And when the preschool director called an hour into the school day to let me know that she had Drew in her office with a busted -open nose from a playground accident, I was kind of ready to locate a restart button for my day.
It is easy to complain about rough mornings, but with a little reflection, they make me feel a little thankful in a weird way. First, if a cough for Katie and a bloody nose for Drew are the only ailments we have around here, I'd say we're doing okay. Unfortunately, we know and love some people going through much worse. Second, the rough mornings make me appreciate how smoothly things usually go around here. And finally, even in all of the frustration, I realize that there is a lot of love in this family. Katie just wanted to be comforted by her parents when she couldn't sleep. Drew was sitting on the lap of his beloved teacher while waiting for me to arrive. When I walked into the office, he attached himself to me and didn't let go for a few minutes. Katie has been fussing over Drew since we picked him up. She has offered him a Strawberry Shortcake band aid, an ice pack, and her blanket and pillow. When I spilled my coffee this morning (yes, really.), Gracie scooped up Katie and took her up to her room to give me space and quiet to clean up my massive mess.
I am currently sipping an iced tea. Katie is doing "oh-my-gommee" (origami) next to me. Drew is playing Imaginext. The bleeding has long stopped (by the time I arrived at preschool) and he is smiling once again. We leave soon to go pick up Gracie and Luke since it is a half day for them. I am determined that our afternoon is going to go much more smoothly than our morning has. I think there is a movie and popcorn in our near future as well as a trip to the library….. and really how bad can a day be when it includes new books and all of my kids cuddled together on the couch giggling together and sharing popcorn?
*** Added an hour later, because I just have to laugh: We were running late picking Gracie and Luke up from school because about five minutes before it was time to leave the house, Katie had a coughing fit that caused her to vomit all over the kitchen floor. I barely had time to clean her and the floor up before we had to bolt. I arrived at Bristol to Luke looking awful. He said he has a really sore throat. I put my hand to his head and knew immediately that he has a fever.
Proof that you can't always wish away a bad day, I guess.
When it seemed to continue with one inconvenience after another, I began to feel a little annoyed. (An example? I opened a new container of peanuts, a new box of raisins, and a new bag of chocolate chips and dumped them all into a jar to replenish our trail mix. I then turned and somehow spilled the. entire. jar. all over the floor. Another example? Without checking with me, Katie decided she wanted to dump the contents of her little potty into the big toilet on her own. You can imagine how this ended up.)
When my laptop froze up and had to be restarted, causing the photo book project I spent two hours on last night to be lost, I moved from annoyed to frustrated.
And when the preschool director called an hour into the school day to let me know that she had Drew in her office with a busted -open nose from a playground accident, I was kind of ready to locate a restart button for my day.
It is easy to complain about rough mornings, but with a little reflection, they make me feel a little thankful in a weird way. First, if a cough for Katie and a bloody nose for Drew are the only ailments we have around here, I'd say we're doing okay. Unfortunately, we know and love some people going through much worse. Second, the rough mornings make me appreciate how smoothly things usually go around here. And finally, even in all of the frustration, I realize that there is a lot of love in this family. Katie just wanted to be comforted by her parents when she couldn't sleep. Drew was sitting on the lap of his beloved teacher while waiting for me to arrive. When I walked into the office, he attached himself to me and didn't let go for a few minutes. Katie has been fussing over Drew since we picked him up. She has offered him a Strawberry Shortcake band aid, an ice pack, and her blanket and pillow. When I spilled my coffee this morning (yes, really.), Gracie scooped up Katie and took her up to her room to give me space and quiet to clean up my massive mess.
I am currently sipping an iced tea. Katie is doing "oh-my-gommee" (origami) next to me. Drew is playing Imaginext. The bleeding has long stopped (by the time I arrived at preschool) and he is smiling once again. We leave soon to go pick up Gracie and Luke since it is a half day for them. I am determined that our afternoon is going to go much more smoothly than our morning has. I think there is a movie and popcorn in our near future as well as a trip to the library….. and really how bad can a day be when it includes new books and all of my kids cuddled together on the couch giggling together and sharing popcorn?
*** Added an hour later, because I just have to laugh: We were running late picking Gracie and Luke up from school because about five minutes before it was time to leave the house, Katie had a coughing fit that caused her to vomit all over the kitchen floor. I barely had time to clean her and the floor up before we had to bolt. I arrived at Bristol to Luke looking awful. He said he has a really sore throat. I put my hand to his head and knew immediately that he has a fever.
Proof that you can't always wish away a bad day, I guess.
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