Struggling through with joy... |
kind of.
Struggling through with joy... |
I have a rare Monday off because, unfortunately, my mother-in-law had to have shoulder replacement surgery and one-half of our daycare equation is gone. My husband and I are covering the gap until my father-in-law feels like he can handle a recovering wife and at least one of our kids.
I promised myself I wouldn’t squander this day, as I often do with extra day off. After we dropped my son off at preschool my daughter and I ran a couple of errands. When we got home I strapped her into the job stroller and off we went on a jog around the neighborhood, followed by a short post-run yoga session punctuated with water spills and tackles from my toddler. I felt guilty to be taking so much time for myself. Ruby sneaked slices of apple to the Chihuahua and ‘helped’ me unload the dishwasher by tossing silverware in random drawers. I felt guilty that I was cleaning instead of playing with her. As soon as the kitchen was clean I changed out of my running clothes, splashed off my face while Ruby covered her mouth with concealer, and grabbed my phone, my purse and my daughter as we ran out the door. As soon as it shut, I knew. Click. I uttered a stream of curse words as Ruby asked, “Car?” “No car for us, Ruby. Mommy is an idiot who locked us out of the house with no car keys.” “Keys?” she asked, tilting her head just so. I shook my head and she settled into moving the duck yard ornaments around, leaving them forever looking like they got into a batch of fermented grass. I scooped her up and raced to the back of the house, hoping my flightiness paid off for once, that I’d left one of the back doors open. Nope. I don’t want to be that mom. My son was picked up almost twenty-five minutes late on Friday because of a mix-up with his grandfather. He’s often one of the last kids to arrive in the morning. Because it’s often more trouble than it’s worth to wrestle my daughter into her shoes, she wanders around the hallway outside his classroom in her sock feet while we sign him in. And now I’d locked us out of the house right when it was time to get him. I’m totally that mom. Thankfully, I had my phone, and even more thankfully, I called my mom and explained what I’d done. “Can you please get Thomas and come let us in?” “Oh honey! I look awful.” She chuckled. “Ok. See you in a bit.” Just like that, I had thirty minutes in the spring sunshine with my girl. There was nothing else I could do. I was locked out of the mountain of clean laundry and away from my computer. I couldn’t prep for lunch. It took me a while to stop berating myself, but when I was done my girl and I dug in the dirt, studied some bugs, and sat together on the step, soaking in the early spring warmth. I didn’t know I was praying for those extra minutes with her, but I got them.
6 Comments
3/26/2018 03:30:38 pm
This was a blessing in disguise, don't you think? You captured how the pressing things of life can squeeze out the important things, like spending quality time with your daughter. I'm glad you had your special 30 minutes of play time and that you have such a great mom!
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3/26/2018 03:39:41 pm
The previous comment was left by me, but I mistyped my name. It should have been bjdonaldson.
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LaReina
3/26/2018 08:13:43 pm
I do have a great mom! I almost did a post about that.
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3/26/2018 03:37:45 pm
So many of us, me included, have done stuff like this. My favorite is locking the keys in the car with the car running. Sounds like you made lemonade out of lemons.
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Diane Anderson
3/26/2018 04:14:06 pm
I once locked myself and my son out of our apartment when we lived in Panama Central America where my husband was stationed in the Army... while he was on a temporary duty assignment in another country. Luckily my Marine friends lived in a building just down the street were home and we stayed with them. Luckily it was the day my husband was coming home. My son just thought it was an adventure..Did I mention we had our dog with us, too?
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3/27/2018 02:24:34 pm
That's life telling you to "slow down and enjoy!" It sounds like you had a lovely day! I'm thinking now that I need to leave a spare key somewhere, but our front door won't lock without a key on the outside.
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