Only Tuesday

I get it.  You're feeling overwhelmed and maybe even already behind...and it's only Tuesday.

As I returned from a "quick trip" to Target (I went in for diapers - why am I carrying three bags?) I stumble into our home with my girls, all of us pink-cheeked from the ten degree weather outside.  I had found two packs of baby wipes in my back seat that froze solid, so I figure I'll see how they thaw out and let the girls use them as bricks for a fort in the meantime.

I check my email, my voicemail, I make a couple calls as I put "Despicable Me2" on tv for my girls to watch while I simultaneously pull out a smorgasbord from the fridge (graham crackers, shrimp, cheese sticks and cucumbers do make a meal, right?) I started putting away the things we "needed" from the store.

With my phone under my cheek, dishes in hand, I see my two-year-old out the corner of my eye as she proudly pours an entire box of goldfish crackers on our coffee table.  I would have screamed if I could conjure up the energy (or not been on the phone at the time) and instead I just sighed deeply at the sight.  I don't know if I was more frustrated with her or more discouraged in the knowledge that I would have to be the one to clean it all up.

I hung up the phone and closed my eyes.  It's ONLY TUESDAY!  And then it hit me.  Deep breath.  It's only Tuesday.  Get a grip, woman.  It's not the end of the world, it's not a major holiday, it's not even the start of the new school year (thanks to Nashville's fear of the snowpocalypse, my grad class was cancelled today).  It's ONLY Tuesday, and this is good news.

Right.  Good news, that's what I needed.  Even the smallest of victories can overcome the mountains of frustration when it comes to parenting.  I look over and see my girls giggling and then my four-year-old says "Mmm, this lunch is good!" and then she lifts her shirt up so I can see her protruding belly full from the bounty.

I'm so blessed.  I'm so grateful to have crackers on smushed into my carpet and frozen packs of baby wipes.  It's stupid and silly and not real problems.  My life is full of wonderfully inconvenient delays and frustrations.  It's maxed out with delightful complaints and glorious interruptions.  There is much to celebrate in the mischievous, the mundane, and the majestically messy.

Much to celebrate - and it's only Tuesday!  Deep breaths mamas - party on.