PERSPECTIVE

Yesterday was 'one of those days'.  The house woke up generally cranky due to a hopeful delay that never came.  It's a total mind game that we play that is so rewarding when the weather cooperates and oh so painful when it doesn't.  I hurried everyone out the door after the cop and I parted on less than stellar terms and started on my usual morning routine.  (no worries...all is well in Zion)  At around 11am Stevie calls to ask me if I would PLEASE come eat lunch with her.  (the middle school had their annual winter carnival and all the kids were on the mountain snowboarding/skiing/tubing) I jumped in the shower and headed up.  We met and I sat (in someone's spilled applesauce, oh goody) with her while she ate.  It ended up being a good thing because she needed help getting dressed again before heading out.  I kissed her goodbye and happened to run into Kaleb before leaving.  He kind of gave me the cold shoulder, ouch.  (but not before asking if he could stay and ski after school which meant that I had to trudge to the opposite side of the resort to sign him out and trudge all the way back up to my car...anything for you Kaleb)  By the time I reached my car I was freezing and it was dead.  HMMPH!  I called my husband, not really sure why seeing as he was at work and wouldn't be much help.  Then I called my neighbor (thank goodness we're only a mile from the resort) to come rescue me.  He was busy and would be there in 15 minutes.  Normally that wouldn't be so bad but the weather was below zero with the wind chill and I had WET HAIR!  I sat in my frigid car and waited.  He finally came and for the next hour we froze trying to get it running.  Nothing.  I begged him to take me home.  I wasn't home more than 20 minutes when Stevie called to tell me that she missed the bus.  (that's another long and complicated story, the school's to blame...grrrr)  I tell her my car is dead, I have no way to pick her up and could she see if there was anyone available to give her a ride home.  10 minutes later she calls back sobbing telling me that she's half way home.  (she was walking, I was not happy)   PLEASE stop crying I tell her, she was already on the verge of hypothermia, tears weren't helping the situation.  She makes it home safely and Steve drives in shortly after.  We hop in his truck to try for a second time to get my car running.  We spent an hour accruing frostbite and unsuccessfully starting my car.  Meanwhile Kayla had left her basketball uniform and shoes in my car anticipating that I would meet her after school with them. (STRESS!)  I had to call and beg a teammates parent to come get them.  While Steve was calling for a tow truck, (can't wait to get THAT bill) I went and collected Kaleb from off the mountain and we left in his truck.  We dropped Kaleb off with the assignment to roof rake, picked up Stevie and off we went to Kayla's game.  From there Steve took Stevie to ball practice while I thumbed a ride home from her game.  Upon arriving home, we discovered that fridge door was WIDE open, (what in the?!?) the pellet stove had run out (BRRRR) and he had neglected to lock the gates all around the house which meant the pugs were free to roam everywhere.  The house was turned upside down by those three menacing dogs.  Poop piles were looming along with trash strewn ALL.OVER.THE.HOUSE!  Do you KNOW how many tiny pieces that toilet paper can be shredded into?  You don't want to know.  I was thinking homicidal thoughts.  Steve came back and picked up the older two for church and left (leaving me no way to contact him because his phone died) without telling me how Stevie was going to get home.  I had to beg and borrow a car so that she wouldn't feel abandoned for the second time that day.  At some point, we all returned home safely, read our scriptures together, said our prayers and everyone fell into bed exhausted.  As I lay there quietly, I decided to text my sister so that I could vent about my long day.  I should have known better.  Anyone with six kids will always trump my day.  This was her reply..."Wow, I'm sorry...I know that no matter how bad it gets, we generally would choose to keep our own problems.  (so true) My day was full of the same including babysitting ADD boy for 7 hours during which I raced into the shower only to discover that the guy who was in the basement all morning (creepy) did something to our furnace so that the hot water didn't work, the whole tooth thing and needing antibiotics (she found out her molar needs a root canal, ROOT CANAL!  I'd be waving my white flag...MERCY!), frostbite at Target when my van doors wouldn't stay open as the cart was being blown away with below zero windchill, leaving my 6 year old in front of the tv all afternoon and evening while teaching piano lessons at which point you called for my mad banking skillz, then had to juggle dinner, jazz band drop off for daughter 1 and basketball practice for daugther 3 because my other driver was at rehearsal.  BREATHE!"  
And so there I lay thinking about how true that statement is.

"I know no matter how bad it gets, we generally would choose to keep our own problems." 
(she had me at SEVEN hours of ADD boy and ROOT CANAL!) 

Monday my friend in Utah lost her 2nd daughter.  She has two other girls here and now two in Heaven.  That's 50%.  I still have my three children...75%.  That's a higher %.  So really...how bad could it be?  I'm grateful for perspective and for my sister who gave me a good dose of it as I drifted off to sleep last night.