I had what should have been a stressful day, but it was actually all good. The temps plummeted here in NE Ohio, it was bitter cold, I had no interest in going out. I dropped Boo off at school, and Little Bee and I headed to Whole Foods to pick up some last minute items that they didn’t have when I went on our big grocery run. Well it turns out they were still out of some stuff so I had to improvise. I was mildly annoyed when the same guy told me to check back again. But I let it roll off, and Little Bee and I came home to play.
My daughter and I hung out all morning. We watched a few minutes of Sesame Street, colored, played in Boo’s room, had a snack, and played with toys in the basement. We were pretty busy. After that, we had a nice lunch. I had a kale salad, a yogurt, and a couple cheese cubes. She had green beans, a piece of bread with hummus, raisins, crackers, a handful of chips, and milk.
Poor Little Bee — she was so exhausted (after waking up at 6:30 am mind you). She fell asleep in the car on the way to pick up Boo, and despite the literally howling wind and bitter cold temperature, she stayed asleep on my shoulder as I carried her to his classroom for pick up.
This is all mundane stuff, I know. I have a point, though — I swear.
Boo’s teacher saw that Little Bee was sleeping, so she dismissed him early. This is when my temper started to flare. Instead of quickly getting his things together, in true 5-year-old fashion, the kid had to unpack and repack his bag, put on, take off, and put on his jacket. And then when he tried to zip his bag, he couldn’t because he had packed every single thing into it and it was too full to close.
For real?!
I stomped off to the car with him lugging behind. Little Bee was still sleeping…
Alas Little Bee woke up when I put her in the car. We drove home and I attempted to put her down for a nap.
Nothin’.
No nap day. Boo was a pill at pick up.
Somehow, despite everything having the ability to make me mad and ruin our entire day, we all hung out together. We played. We watched Sofia the First. I made lemon squares. We played in the basement again. We played for a long time in Boo’s room. We played with cars, we read Christmas books, we played with busy bags. And then we had a quiet dinner together where everyone ate most of their meals, and we had lemon squares for dessert.
 |
| Lemon squares. Yep. |
My point to telling you all about my day is this: I could have let so many incidences get me worked up. I did lose my cool once when Boo threw a toy at my treadmill and my daughter, and then he proceeded to talk back to me, but other than that it was smooth sailing. Amazing, really. Boo and I used to hang out together all the time and he was so chill. After having Little Bee, all of that changed. I feel like I’ve been constantly stressed out and I’ve been trying to do far too much all at once. It was a nice change to just let things happen. As 2014 is now winding down, I’m still running and aiming to achieve my mileage goal. But now instead of stressing out about training, I’m enjoying the run and just letting everything go. I’ve been treadmill-bound so I’ve been enjoying listening to my tunes as loudly as my ears can stand it. Taking on daily stress can be a huge burden, I’m lucky that I have running to keep me going, but I can’t do it every day and stress can start to play a bigger factor in life if there is nothing to counteract it. I have had a few friends recommend hemp oil to me and show how it can be used in keeping some stess related issues at bay. It is definitely tempting and worth a look, I’ll have to have a consultation with my doctor and discuss it.
I miss summer and the warm weather and being able to play outside and be constantly on-the-go, but today I realized sometimes it’s nice to have a slower pace and to just hang out with the kids. Life is too short and these moments are too precious to miss.
And also, lemon squares.
xo
