DPP2016 Day 5 - Just another Manic Monday. . .

I wonder if I could use nothing but song titles to label my future posts.  I feel like my friend Ken would support me in this effort.  I am taking suggestions for renaming the first four posts.  Leave it in the comments here or on Facebook.  Best ideas will rename the posts.  :)

Today was one of those days that normally would have given me some serious mom guilt.  I can't say that I had no mom guilt because that just isn't possible on a day like today.  My day started by pushing my daughter out the door.  She had normal broken arm worries combined with the remaining unknowns of middle school.  She wanted one more day to rest.  She went anyway because I was mostly sure she was just scared of the unknown.  Better to yank the band aid off, right?  I took her up to school, helped her learn to do her locker one handed, met with the school nurse to find out what she needed to do to get her stuff to and from class (they don't allow book bags), and to get her excused from PE. She made it most of the way through the day before she had to come home.

The process took me longer than expected so I was rushing across town to my work location that had changed at 7:00 in the morning.  It was a busy day filling in for a physician who had to be out unexpectedly.  I didn't leave clinic until after 6pm (and I still have charts to finish after this post), had to rush to get things picked up for the giving tree items the kiddos picked off their school tree, and pick up dinner.  Rich had requested Olive Garden for the soup.   Rich had a busy day too.  He had to run new Tylenol up to Elizabeth because we only had expired Tylenol (oops).  :)  He took Ben to the doctor over his lunch hour so we could find out he had strep.  And by the end of the day, it was clear, Rich had strep too.  (Don't think I didn't consider "Another One Bites the Dust" for this post, because I did).

So why didn't I have serious mom guilt?  Because thanks to this blog, I realized that even though I didn't arrive home until 7:30pm and I didn't get all of the quantity time that I would have wanted - I still had plenty of quality time.  When I hit home, I figured I would either skip the blog today or post something notable from 2016.  But in that short amount of time, I was able to capture some shots, realize I had good stories to tell and realize that I could have had more if I had wanted to get my camera out more.  So here is my brief time at home in pictures. . . .   My selection for today is called Showing Gratitude.   Sometimes when you have a broken arm, you have to seek help from anywhere you can get it. Here is when you realize, your little helper was indispensable in the task you couldn't do without her. So she gets enveloped into a hug that has genuine gratitude wrapped up in it.

Remember how I told you that K is small but mighty.  She is a force in this family and almost always for good.  Tonight, E asked for help folding and putting away her laundry and K was the first to step up.  I had remembered thinking I needed to go help with that but I was cleaning up dinner.  When I went down, I found K matching socks.  Shortly after, K was lending her hands to hold the socks so E could use her good hand to fold the socks together.  When I declared it K's bedtime, she was so sad.  She knew she was big stuff in this situation and she didn't want it to end.  E wrapped her up in a big hug and thanked her for being such a huge help to her.  E really couldn't have done it without her.  What a great lesson for both of them.  My Little Miss Independent realized how capable K can be if she is patient and willing to teach.  She had to be tonight because she didn't have other options.  K learned that she can be a real help to her family.   It was clear that she liked that.  Genuine gratitude for a kindness given.  Love that.  Here are a couple more from the laundry work. . .

Our resident jolly 'ol elf was in fine form this evening.  He was chatting a mile a minute - much like his Daddy does.  He had lots to tell us about school.  Lil b LOVES math.  And everything we talked about tonight, he turned into a story problem.  It started simply, "If Dad has three bowls of soup and he eats two of them, how many bowls of soup will he have for breakfast?"  This is a very real life example as Rich would eat two bowls of soup and save one for breakfast.  Made us laugh.  He is also very into creating things.  He will work on things for a long time trying to get it just right.  I am not sure what he is making on this paper though I know it has a jungle in it.  He has been working on this for over a week.  He begs to use my sharpies as they are the ONLY marker that will work for what he is doing. 

We had one friend that we were missing this evening.  The house is a little less vibrant when he is down and out.  He was off to bed even before I got home.  He got up long enough to eat a bowl of cereal and then back out for the count.  Here is hoping those antibiotics kick in quickly - for both my sick boys.

My last story of the day is related to the laundry one above.  As I was tucking K into bed and chatting with her.  She is all about Santa right now and his reindeer.  I let her tell me her long winded made up Santa stories for awhile.  Then I asked her, "Why do we celebrate Christmas?"  She, not surprisingly, answered, "so Santa can bring me a present!"  Lucky Santa.  :)   I spent some time walking her through the Nativity story and trying to put into 3 year old terms why the birth of Jesus means so much.  She has a song from VBS that she loves that repeats the line "I have decided to follow Jesus" at least a thousand times.  When I asked her if she knew what it meant to "follow Jesus", she didn't.  I told her that it meant that we try to live a life like Jesus.  It means that we love all people, we care for them and look for ways to help others.  She nodded and said, "I followed Jesus!  I did laundry!"  Sometimes, it is that simple.  

So yes - it was a Manic Monday.   Full of busyness.  It still managed to be full of sweet moments that I would have likely missed without the blog waiting for me at the end of the day.  I was even able to find time to chat on the phone with three friends that I hadn't chatted with in awhile which was just the icing on the cake.