Progress

Today and yesterday were challenging. But the challenges provided an excellent learning opportunity on using a positive perspective to view situations that seem negative. Here’s a recap...

(1) I woke up to flat tire yesterday. But it was easily, cheaply, and quickly remedied

(2) I needed plywood cut into small boards and every hardware store in a 50 mile radius had a broken panel saw. I wasted way too much time finding that out. But I got to spend some fun quality time with the kids in the car listening to great music and laughing hard. 

(3) I couldn't fall asleep until 2 AM.  As soon as I felt sleepy, A child came in with a nightmare. Nightmares always mean something is wrong. They only happen when he's sick. But I got to snuggle with him and comfort him which I don’t get to do often enough. 

(4) He proceeded to scream in agony until I got him to the dentist this morning. He has a mouth full of abscesses. But we discovered an amazing dentist who is so talented and sweet and takes our insurance. And her office is 0.3 miles from my house. 

(5) Back to Home Depot. The saw worked. Little guy cried the whole time there because he was exhausted. But he soon became enthralled with the panel saw which was a great distraction from his pain. 

(6) I came home from Home Depot and my power was out. I nearly had heart failure because I'm late on my bill. Luckily it was just an area outage. The power returned before I even got a customer service rep on the phone. 

(7) I spent about an hour sanding 48 wooden boards. My hand is numb. But it was so much quicker with a power sander than it would have been with sanding paper. 

(8) A certain unnamed child came home and punched her brother in the face. Where he has abscesses. She was very contrite and apologetic and learned a valuable lesson about sensitivity and emotional regulation. 

(9) Someone else decided to be angry because homework is hard. She took it out on my glass paneled front door and glass flew everywhere. Luckily my ex has a client who fixes these things and owes him a favor so it will be repaired first thing in the morning at no cost. 

  My sweet babies are now all in bed. This is the part where I would typically fall apart into a puddle of tears and emotion. And I feel great. Not sad at all, not even a hint of self-pity. And that is what we call progress. 

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