21 Days of Gratitude: Day 3 – Modern Conveniences

Well, as if on cue, today was hard busy.

Here’s how it all went down:

• 7am – kids are up (I swear, their internal clocks are sharp people!)
• 8am – my WONDERFUL cleaning lady arrived.  She usually comes every 2 weeks, but hadn’t been in a month.  I love her and this morning when she got here she said to me “I’ve missed you!! and gave me a big hug.” Bless her.  Anyone who could miss me and the mess that is my home right now is truly an angel.
• 9am – finally left the house with the kids so she could clean uninterrupted.  She’s so precious – I’ll leave the room and find her cleaning Miles up after his breakfast, helping Henry load up his library books, holding Etta if she starts crying, etc.  My dream is to be able to afford having her help me every week, maybe even several days each week when Hank is gone…
• 9:30 – 11 – went to Target, which is usually a fun trip. Today it was kinda crazy. I started huffing and puffing a few times, and then made myself focus on what was great about the situation:

1. As if Target couldn’t get any better, they now have these handy snap-on cup holders:

GENIUS!  I heart you, Target.

1. I finally found an affordable pair of shoes to fit Miles’ cube-like feet.  Seriously, folks, he’s been barefoot until now.  It’s getting a bit embarrassing as he’s almost 2.  But his adorable feet are honestly as tall and wide as they are long which makes finding shoes difficult nearly impossible.

And for your viewing pleasure, I’d like to share the 2 strangest items I found while at Target today:

you’re welcome.

• 11am – picked Hank up at home and went to H&M to buy some jeans for him, a few things for the kids and some “nice” tops for me.  I needed him with me because the last time I set out to buy “nice” clothes I came back with sweat pants.  No lie.  And I wore them 12 out of the 14 days that followed.  I rationalized this decision by telling myself that they were “cute” sweat pants, because they are “skinny” sweats with zippers at the ankles.  Oh, the shame.
• 2:00 – lunch.  I can’t even bring myself to tell you what we ate…we were out, starving, and got desperate…I mean, this is a health blog, I’ve gotta save face here.
• 3 – dropped Hank off for a haircut/beard trim and went back to Target to return a pair of $40 impluse-purchase boots.
• 4 – picked Hank up at his haircut and headed over to the new house to see what the workers had been up to all day and discuss the layout of the laundry room.
• 5:30 – realized that we were late for soccer and rushed home to drop Hank off so he could finish a song for someone’s record.
• 6:15 – arrived {late} at soccer.  The boys finally got to stretch their legs for 30 minutes in the cool breeze – have you experienced a fall in Tennessee?  It’s fantastic.
• 6:45 – headed home
• 7:15 – fed my family eggs {again} for dinner
• 8 – got the kids to bed…and I crashed.

That’s right, I was gone from 9am – 7pm.  It may seem like no big deal, but for a homebody like me, this is hard.

Now.  Somewhere between nursing Etta while sitting in a parked car and changing diapers in parking lots I managed to remember my challenge and look for the good.  I was especially thankful that Miles saved his major poo blowout for once we were home.

Shopping for clothes really stresses me out so this was a good test.  Rather than complaining about the loud music (did I just write that?  I’m an old lady!!!), narrowness of the aisles (double stroller – hello!!!!), or the price of clothing, I instead remembered how incredible it is that we are able to buy new clothes, wash those clothes, and wear the clothes of our choosing every day.  I remember visiting Uganda as a teenager and our sweet translators wore the same clothes day after day after day….so much to be thankful for.  I even chilled out enough to ride the carousel with Henry.

So, I guess, in a nutshell, I’m thankful for modern conveniences.

For a car that runs well and fits all of my children, my big stroller, and groceries.

For cell phones so that my husband and I could easily communicate about who, when, where, and how.

For stores that carry anything and everything that we could ever need…and way too many things that I just simply want.

For fresh, clean, filtered water to drink at any moment of any day.

For air conditioning in my car and my home.

For the ability to afford for my children to play sports.

SO, so, so many things.  And to think I might have have previously missed all of this…

I mean, you guys, as I am re-reading this, I am laughing at how great this day really was!  How can I complain about spending the entire day with my family?  Someone else cleaned my house while I went shopping and made plans for my new wonderful home…I can’t even remember what I was tempted to complain about now.  It makes me realize how easily I will let a few things that don’t go perfectly ruin a completely amazing day.  I’m embarrassed actually, and considered deleting this whole post so you wouldn’t realize how shallow I can be.  Reading it back I am seeing that I have absolutely nothing to be complaining about.

I needed this challenge so badly!  How is yours going?

live well. be well.