So I'm sure many are familiar with the pre-dinner breakdowns. When everyone is tired and hungry from the long day and mom doesn't want anyone touching the food or sneaking the snacks in the pantry because dinner is only 20 minutes away! And you feel you head is stretched five ways between the boiling pot of rice and the baby toddling into all sorts of trouble and the older kids saying their going to die of starvation!
In crises like these I sometimes feel that only a husband home early from work can magically restore the peace (and my sanity).
And yet there is hope! Surprise!
Yesterday I saw a facebook notification that the neighbor kids on the corner had a little cookie stand outside their house to raise money for some nice charitable cause---heart association or something. Anyway...happy to support a good cause and to have an excuse to get the "crazies" out of the house (yes...all of us) and go for a walk, we ventured out.
Dinner was practically done and we just needed to wait five more minutes. But I turned off the stove and thought the vegetables would finish steam cooking just fine without heat. And I shouted (with all that pent up frustration from minutes before), "Time for a surprise!"
Well if that didn't get attention...! It did. I told my kids it was time to get on our shoes and go find a surprise at the corner. They anticipation and excitement was explosive. Ethan's running to get his shoes...giggling from the joy of a surprise. I'm feeling an intense pre-breath-of-fresh-air-coming feeling. Nellies just happy beacuse ethans happy and her little head is imagining candy and princess and dancing and whatever. And baby likes shoes...so she's happy to put them on and be with everyone.
Everyone is happy.
And we finally get to the corner and yay, the kids say "cookies!" and we eat. I talk to a neighbor. And breathe. And the walk does us all a little good. We hold hands. We are happy.
Wow. By the time we got home I told my husband, now home...I need more surprises in my life! I was rescued by surprise cookies.
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And so it is. Sometimes I need rescuing from my tense moments where I feel I have no pressure valve or guage beyond my own limits and control. And when I don't feel in control, it sure would be nice to have someone hit a big red button and yell "surprise" and change the mood.
So, I'm making a big red button. IT will be in our great room. And I will push the surprise button and yell "surprise" anmd I will change my negative, tense mood and situation to something to celebrate. Yes...that means being blind to what the surprise is. That button will be my invitiation to be spontaneous and make something up off-the-cuff.
I think I will enjoy the mind break and live more creatively and joyfully. We will find something to celebrate.
p.s. March 26 is "Make Up Your Own Holiday" Day. So go ahead and try it saturday, whether or not you feel sane. It'll be good practice.
And breathe...life should be fun.
The End.
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