Down and out, yet better than ever...

So...if you read sunshine's blog then you'll notice an uncanny resemblance between her post and mine today. Odd...perhaps it's the moon cycle or perhaps the warm weather takes it's toll and us girls finally do something for us. Here is the general state of affairs today...not celebrating birthday with Mother-n-law, brother...well let's just generalize and say that he's a bit crazy lost his mind, children that have decided not to do chores and are a bit shocked when plans with friends are canceled due to lack of choredom, having to forgo a date with my husband this weekend to clean up my brother's mess, more financial stress than any one middle class American family can tolerate (OK, that's a little dramatic, but REALLY??! Bush is killing me!) AND last night when I attempted to walk into the bathroom but couldn't due to the enormous pile of laundry and step stool left behind the door the tears came. The tears were good except that Nina inquired...what's wrong? To which I replied, crazy family, crazy OUT OF CONTROL house!!, 70 hours a week, food prices, gas prices, floods to increase food prices, utilities and well, just generally feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes life is like that. I lotioned her up, kissed her, tucked her in bed and went on my way. Oh AND, let me share a story with you about the CRAZY person that came into my center yesterday!!! Picture it...Rockford, 2008, drizzly rain, mid 70's, 12:30 (naptime, 200 children peacefully dozing. An innocent looking enough parent comes in the front door carrying an innocent looking enough 2 year old who proceeds to pull the fire alarm WHILE SHE WAS HOLDING HIM!!!!! He wasn't in the door 1 second!! How on Earth does this happen?!? No apology from this mother, no run for the hills, no correction to the child....just this calm statement, "I wanted to see if I could enroll my child?" "WHAT!?!" "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?" "DO YOU KNOW YOU JUST WOKE UP 200 KIDS?!?!" (The strobe lights are flashing, the siren is going off, children are waking up crying and scrambling out of the building) I calmly said to her...can you wait right here while I evacuate my 200 sleeping children, call the alarm company, reset the pull station, silence the alarm, and lose my mind!?! And calmly wait she did. After I regained my composure I explained to the innocent looking enough parent that no I couldn't enroll her child, I'd have to stab myself in the eye first! That was just a snippet of my day yesterday. So last night...the tears were good. Today, the strength has returned. The family can be crazy (I'll stay out of it thank you very much), I'll keep pluggin along until this economy works it's way through or I resolve to poverty whichever comes first, I'll clean up my brother's mess as best I can...and then...I will paste a happy smile on my face and continue to appreciate every day and all it brings.

Until next time...