Just a bad day...

Recently, I had a bad day. It all started with a round of medicine I had started the day before, and it was made me feel weird- not hungry, not sleep well and lots more! Yuck! My hubby had a appointment to donate blood and he left early in the morning (like 7:20-ish, early for us!). I got up with the kids about 8:00, and had to make the coffee. No big deal, I've done it lots of times...

Well, we put our old coffee grounds into our compost bucket in our kitchen. It was full, so I couldn't put any more grounds into it. I decided to take it outside to the compost bin in the glass Italian press and the compost bucket we have in our kitchen. So I had both of those in my hands and I was looking down, being careful not to spill as I went out of the kitchen to the back door. I hit my head, HARD on a high cupboard door that was left open by the children. I hadn't noticed it was open. As I got outside, I started to cry. This is NOT a good beginning to the day!

I came back in, made breakfast for myself and toddler, and then went to take a shower. After my shower,
we jumped in the car (all 5 of us, me and 4 kids) to bring my daughter to her music lesson. We got her there on time, and since it is only a half-hour lesson, I decided to take the kids to a nearby store. I needed to get a few toiletries, and wanted to check out a sale that I'd heard about there. My son decided to stay in the car and read, so I let him. I took the two little girls into the store with me, and of course, neither one wanted to ride in the cart. I dragged them around the store looking for the hair conditioner & gel I needed, and found one of them. Then I decided I had to go to the bathroom. BAD. NOW. So I asked an employee where the bathrooms were. She said, "Go through the storeroom, around the corner, up the stairs, down the hall, through the break-room and they're in the back corner."  Seriously?! Did I have to go that bad? Yes... dragged the girls to the bathroom with me and back downstairs.

I browsed another aisle (the sale items, quickly) and I heard a car alarm outside. I wondered if it was our van, since I had locked my son in, maybe he tried to get out... Sure enough, in he comes, crying and worried, because he "can't get the alarm to stop!" Poor kid. I tried to turn off the car alarm in the store, and it wouldn't work from my keychain. I had my son take the keys outside and turn it off. I actually laughed about it a little. Sometimes stress gets to be too much, and that's all you can do!

I grabbed my last few items and went to the register to pay. I checked my watch, it's 5 minutes until ten, I needed to pick up my daughter at ten. It's at least two minutes away... I waited behind one other customer, and was dragging my girls to the check out counter. "Stay by Mommy, please, we're almost done... No, you can't have that... Ok, you can share some M & M's..." We get to the checkout, and my shirt that was on sale (the whole reason I went to this store!) didn't ring up on sale. I told her about it, she keyed it in the register, and had to get manager approval... I'm thinking, I gotta go get my daughter from her lesson... She's gonna be waiting... Sigh...

We finally got out, picked up my daughter at the college nearby, and she had been waiting. Turns out her lesson was finished early. Sorry... Then I told her about our crazy trip to the store. She told me I'm crazy to try to do all that... No sympathy there...

When we got home, my son went to get his friend from the neighborhood, and my daughter checked our chickens. We let them out into the yard. We do that every few days, they like to explore and eat bugs. Usually they don't stray from the fence boundaries, even if the gates are open. But today, one of the chain-link gates was open, and a chicken got out into the side yard. My son discovered it and yelled for me to help him, so I went outside. The bird was trying to get back in through the fence, and of course, it couldn't. We couldn't get it to go back through the gate, so I got a broom from inside the pantry to help. We got the chicken back in with the broom, and my toddler was at the back door, following me. She pinched her fingers in the door, and cried... Sigh. I got her some ice.

My older daughter and her friend decided to make some crayon shaving art. I am not a big fan of messy art projects, but I said "yes" and allowed them to do their project with my four-year-old, as long as they cleaned it up. They got out the iron, and heated it up. They got out the crayons and began to grate them, onto my cutting board with the grater. The cheese grater came clean... the cutting board, not so much. It's still stained with purple, green and yellow wax. It makes it pretty, right?! We didn't have any wax paper so they used parchment paper. When they ironed it, it didn't stick together. Then... My 4-year-old burned her arm on the iron, and my older daughter performed first aid on her, with aloe vera from the plant and a bandage. "It stinks!" my 4 -year-old complained... I changed the bandage for her and it was better. Three injuries for different people in one day... ugh.

That was all before lunch! I wasn't feeling real hungry, but I ate anyway. I had some leftover salad, and it didn't taste good. My toddler has been fussy, becoming more independent and not wanting anything I do or give to her. "Do it my-helf, Mom!" OK, sigh. I did some cleaning, swept the floor, cleaned up some dishes and counted the minutes until nap time. I can make it...I folded some loads of laundry.

Then nap time came, I got my two little girls down, and went into my room. I folded another load of laundry and put it away. It was raining, and I was glad that I hadn't put any clothes on the clothesline today. I read the Bible, and was having a hard time getting into the passage, in 1 Corinthians, talking about being single and not getting married. A little too late for me... I took a short nap, awakened by my 4 year-old, who "can't sleep."

I changed the loads in the washer, picked up some things, worked on the computer and then my hubby came home. I told him about my day. He was sympathetic, mostly. He thought I was over-zealous trying to go to the store in a half-hour with our three younger kids. I still didn't feel good, didn't eat a huge dinner. After dinner, my hubby left again for more practice at the church, for the Sunday services, they always practice on Wednesday nights. I tweeted about having a challenging day, and asked for prayer.

My husband's aunt, uncle and cousin were getting ready to leave town the next day, they had been staying at his sister's home. They came over to say goodbye. It was nice to see them again, they are all so kind and enjoy the kids so much. Auntie read a book to my youngest daughter, and we talked. My older daughter told them, "Mom had a bad day..." and so I told them some of it. "Aw, we're sorry" and they gave me extra hugs. :'-)  They left, and I was sad again. I got the kids into the bathtub, and into bed, (with my oldest's help!) and then Daddy came home. Finally time to sit and relax. My brother had seen my tweet/ fb post and called me to check on me. That cheered me up a bit.

I thought about my kids' book by Mercer Mayer called Just a Bad Day. And another book called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst. That was how I felt... maybe tomorrow will be better and I won't move to Australia. ;-D

As I went to sleep that night, thinking about it all,  I thanked God that not all days are like this!
I laughed later about this crazy day. Sometimes stress gets to be too much, and that's all you can do! Except pray-- God is in control of it all, and I'm so thankful that He won't tempt us more than we can handle. (1 Corinthians 10:13) And that "He will never leave us or forsake us." (Hebrews 13:5b)
___________________________________________

writing prompt #3 -"A bad day"