Going It Alone
When your spouse works late or overtime or just a LOT in general, things get....what can we say? Oh! - DIFFICULT. Or you maybe you just plain go it alone all the time, in which, you are persevering in beautiful ways, friend. Parenting is not for the weak.
There are things I am proud of and things I am not on Difficult Days.
Proud of: killing a huge, hairy, black spider that was on the COUCH. Not on a hard wall or a firm floor but a squishy, flimsy, cozy couch. You cannot smack a couch cushion…it will just squish. But I killed it and it is dead and I stand a little bit taller. How did I do this? Some things need to go to the grave, with said spider. All the while my children ran around me and cheered and hopped and screamed and you may have thought I won the lottery. But I did not.
Not proud of: the chocolate consumption.
Proud of: making the most of the dinner hour by just not cooking and meeting other friends and other funny kids and seeing how Panera likes us now. Sorry, local Panera, about the yogurt in between the seats of the booths by the bathroom.
Not proud of: whatever I was wearing. A friend said: Were you just working out? Nope. Just surviving my LIFE. I most likely was sweating, so I guess I looked the part.
Proud of: getting all my kids bathed. I have three. That’s a lot of bottoms and teeth and limbs. It is done.
Not proud of: using a harsh tone. Several times. To someone who may not have been listening, may have been bouncing around and drawing on tables with a Sharpe (my fault on the Sharpe), may have been singing at the top of her lungs while we were simply trying to get buckled. Focus. Please. I beg of you. Just stop talking for 10 seconds and focus.
Proud of: texting my man with sexy emojis and kisses and just trying to send some love points his way….even when I wasn’t feeling all of these things 100%. That’s ok. Trying is a really big deal. It’s like, MOST of the deal. Movement toward him when it’s Difficult Days takes strength. Courage. Vulnerability. Practice.
Going it alone: Some of you do this all the time. Every single day. And I am PROUD to be your friend. You are doing it. Doing so much. I applaud you and say if they are fed and hugged - you did it. Humans are so very resilient. You. Me. Them. The whole lot of us. I am banking on human resilience as being part of common grace around here. Praise God.
So for this Freebie Friday - let's acknowledge the difficult and hard things. Not impossible. Just plain hard. You've got this. We all do. Love to you and yours.
