I Phone Day

In case you haven't noticed from past posts, life has been crazing me up lately. I kid you not, it has felt like as one storm passes another one follows in it's wake.  After awhile I kind of just decided to keep my windows borded up. Joke's on life; if I already was expecting crazy, it couldn't sneak up on me anymore.... Can I let you in on something?

That's really no way to live.

I was getting real grumpy real quick. Actually, I don't think I was ever getting un-grumpy, toward my kids at least. I was waking up expecting small people to disobey, talk back and frankly, just plain act nuts. Out the gate I was like, "stop whining" this and "listen to me" that and  "I KNOW YOU WANT CEREAL!! YOU'VE SAID IT A HUNDRED TIMES EVERY MORNING FOR THE PAST 80 DAYS!" Every morning.

Here's the deal. I was kind of living with blinders on. I was robbing myself of the ability and opportunity to zoom out and see the bigger picture. All I was seeing was the ear piercing whistling which is almost constant,  (one of my people's nervous habit that could kill a man) and the immediate back sass to pretty much every word I spoke. Then I'd just get so frustrated in that moment, that the day became very long and very overwhelming REAL quick.

I was starting to wonder if I could live this reality for a long time, ya know that forever thing...and it was clear to me that I couldn't. I couldn't live frustrated like that forever. I started thinking foster care, adoption, none of it was going to work out. After all, that was the problem, right?

Until I got a phone call.

I got a call that made me realize I had to figure things out and fast. For various reasons, visits with mom are no longer and the possibility of adoption could come around the corner far more quickly than we'd expected. And I knew I needed to find a solution to the doom and glume. And we all know that to find a solution you first have to find the problem.... turns out that problem was not the kids or anyone else. It was ME and my blinders I had on. I was so focused on the moment I had lost all hope of being patient. I decided to take the blinders off and start again, so I offered myself this challenge...

THE CHALLENGE: spend the next few days looking for and ONLY voicing the positive.

Problem with this is, I had to come clean and do some apologizing. As if apologizing isn't bad enough, I had

to apologize to a nine year old.

Give that a spin sometime and try to tell me it isn't humbling. ESPECIALLY when said nine year old has been pushing your authority.

So, when Little Big Man came home from school that day I sat him down and said "I need to apologize to you. I haven't been patient lately and I've been really grumpy. I've been having a lot of I Phone days lately and I'm sorry. I love you and want you to know that and when I'm grumpy it's hard to feel loved."

A few posts ago, I mentioned Little Big Man came up with a code word for bad days so he could tell us he was having a bad day without coming out and saying it, that word is I Phone.

He grabbed me up in a big hug and started LAUGHING! Then he said "you're silly mom, of course I know you love me! We all have I Phone days!"

We made a deal that as I try to be less grumpy, he'll try to be more obedient.

I'm thankful things are turning around, we all are having fewer I Phone days. And I hope to always remember that when those I Phone days roll around, that I should not let them take over my life.

After all, we all have I Phone days every now and then.

Taking our "brand new" $6 DI bikes for their first spin around the block. It was my three and four year olds' first bike ride and it took a half hour to go around the block! Ahhh... my kind of family home evening!