A new mommy's mishaps, mayhem, and majesty

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Perspective

 I had a pretty bad day yesterday. I needed to make a 2 hour trip to IKEA to pick up a few things, and had to bring my kids along because my husband was working. Getting up there was an adventure- trying to make it out the door took longer than usual because a missing boot could not be located,  the girls were fussy because they needed naps, and I got pulled over on the 89, which was a first for me. Add to that the explosive diarrhea my two-year-old had while at the store and the absence of wipes in my diaper bag.... A breakdown would be understandable at that point, right?
It didn't occur to me until the drive home what an awful day I had. My whole body ached from pushing a cart that was harder to steer than a HALO 1 warthog. It literally rode sideways rather than straight. I was tired of grabbing Lily and throwing her back in the cart every time she made a break for it. But the funny thing is.... it didn't seem so bad at the time. I was counting my blessings. At least IKEA had what I went up there for and I didn't make a 4-hr car trip for nothing. I was lucky that when a small bomb went off in my daughter's pants I had not only an extra set of pants, but a warm jammie shirt to put on her because the mess seeped through her pants, shirt and jacket. Especially lucky because IKEA doesn't carry clothing. I had no wipes, but there was a pack of courtesy wipes in the bathroom for emergencies such as this. At least we were already in the family bathroom when it happened, and she wasn't running through the middle of the store or something.
I guess it wasn't THAT bad of a day. It could be a lot worse...

Simple Gifts

A favorite song of mine is an old Shaker song, called "Simple gifts". It brings peace to my heart everytime I hear it, especially during this uncertain time. I start dreaming of what "true simplicity" is to me and how wonderful it would be. And then I start thinking about what I can do to achieve it.
One thing I do periodically is look around our teeny home...and see STUFF. stuff everywhere. Then I get overwhelmed and begin the purge- tossing broken things and garbage, clearing out books, unimportant papers, and worn out/ underused clothes, eliminating underused and disliked items. Sometimes I even go so extreme as cutting tags off pillows and baby toys (those big tags are SOOO annoying), and consolidating boxes out of our kitchen cupboards (you know, the big box with one or two fruit snacks left in it). The other day I was winding ribbon around my fingers and sticking a pin in it so I could throw the spools away. In my defense I had purchased several 5 yard cuts of ribbon for $.60 each and was trying to figure out an organized,  free/ cheap way to store it. I also realized it would save space in my ribbon box to store all of my ribbon in the same manner.
I've been taking a mental inventory... and STUFF is not making me happy. In fact I think our stuff is starting to rule us...