It’s the day before Thanksgiving. As I am writing this our Lily is rolling all over our bed covering me with her most prized possessions, her two favorite blankets. She had just kneed me in the head and gave me a kiss to make me better.
She is also asking if she can write for my blog when she gets older, which is just the sweetest, while she is holding her new Duffy Bear that we got her for her birthday.
While this is pretty close to my idea of perfect, my day didn’t start out this great.
The morning included scrubbing poop out of not just one pair of underwear, but two, the house was an absolute mess and I had only a few minutes to get ready for work. With all of the stress of the morning and other situations taking place in our lives a meltdown happened. Not a meltdown for the toddler, but a meltdown for me.
I was sad because I felt I wasn’t measuring up as a mom. I was sad because we used store bought decorations for Lily’s third birthday party last Saturday instead of me going Pinterest crazy and making everything. I was sad because we can’t find a bigger house to accommodate our family as we are exploding out of this one. I was sad because no matter how hard I try I feel like I just can’t progress in life.
While fighting with my computer at work I felt absolutely hopeless.
But, then I came home to this:
And I realized that it was the day before Thanksgiving and there are bigger things out there than paper Mickey decorations and iMovie troubles at work.
For me, feeling like I am never doing my best, is a demon that I have to face and realizing all the blessings I have, is the antidote.
This morning, my wonderful husband reminded me that Lily was so excited for her party that she won’t remember that I didn’t sew her a Minnie Mouse costume to wear to her party. She will remember the Happy Birthday banner from Walmart that hung in our kitchen all week long in honor of her “birthday week” that made her so happy.
And you know what this is true.
Children don’t know that things can always be better. They are just excited with how things are now. She might have an accident in her underwear and be upset one minute and in the next minute is running around the house yelling about “Paw Patrol.”
So this Thanksgiving, in addition to being thankful for the usual food, roof over head and good health, I will also be Thankful for the things that drive me almost to the edge. These are the things that challenge us to be better people. These are the challenges that really call us on the carpet to appreciate the simple things in life and to realize that we are only human. We will mess up and life will disappoint us on more occasions than we would like.
But, in the end it will work out. Maybe not the way we want, but the way we need it to.
And for that, I am thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
Love,
The Mousekatot Family
Mousekatots 