Not so fast

#NovemberThankfulness. This is my Instagram tour for the month. As I made the decision to write for an audience, I also knew my heart needed some rehabilitation. So I set out to be more mindful of the blessings I have in life. And all moments of appreciation that I could recognize. Big or small. Then choosing one to highlight to my followers for my daily post. We’re halfway through the month and today is the first day that I struggled to find one thing. ONE thing. And why?? Because today was a real life Monday. REAL. LIFE.

Our weekend was a busy one. My husband and I hardly crossed paths until the evenings. Between parties, practice, work and writing…we had every hour covered. So when Sunday night arrived and I found myself submitting a writing project that was due by midnight {hitting the send button at 11:34PM} I was more than ready to crawl into bed and prepare my body for another week. Not so fast! The little punky princess had other ideas. So as the night progressed I counted three…THREE hours of sleep for this mama. Marvelous. Believe it or not, that’s not quite the recipe I had in mind for the start of another week. Enter Monday. Like a lion.

Tired. But tired is the everyday routine. Today was way more than that. Apparently when you have two kids and the first one learns to sleep through the night at two months, that card is already taken. And there aren’t two of a kind in the deck. At least not the stack I’m playing with. So between the joys of pregnancy and the joys of interrupted nights since our daughter’s birth, I’ve been running on fumes for almost eighteen months. It’s the new norm. And I know there’s others out there who can relate! So let me just commiserate with you. For the love of God, I JUST WANT SOME SLEEP! Anyhow, my normal foggy haze was extra hazy today. So hazy that I pulled into the grocery store parking lot, unbuckled my seat belt, leaned over to grab my purse and then opened my car door. Not so fast! So I guess you have to actually put the car in park AND turn it off. For real. Suddenly I’m creeping into the spot in front of me. Thank heavens there wasn’t a car. Or a person. Pretty sure that would have made for a very different kind of Monday…

So now our fridge is jam packed. To include three gallons of milk. Yes. THREE. Because I have three people in this household who don’t won’t drink the same kind of milk. And I’ll give you one hint. I’m not one of those three. So yes, the milk required some moving around to make everything fit when I got home. My jug of fresh apple cider was now relegated to the top shelf. Closest to the light. When my husband opened up the fridge this evening, he pointed out that perhaps I should drink that fairly quickly considering its new location. As I stood with my back to him, washing a few dishes; I informed him to take it out then and I’ll have some. I turned to find he had poured me some in a plastic cup. UGH. I don’t drink apple cider cold. Call me weird but I only like that stuff hot. Piping hot. Enter that Monday lion. Um, I didn’t ask you to pour it I just asked you to take it out. Oh yes. That was me. Or maybe my evil twin. You know, the one who comes out after only three hours of sleep, a cranky needy toddler, loading groceries in the rain, a son who struggles with listening and a couple rejection emails. Yeah, that one. The poor man. Just trying to be nice and pour his wife a beverage and said wife snaps at him for something completely ridiculous. Bless his heart as he simply stared at me, apologized and walked off. Holy moly, mama. Time to take a step back. I may or may not have retreated for a minute. To our pantry, HOT cider in hand and just took a deep breath. The pantry. Yes, I escaped to the pantry because that was the only place I could think of where I could be alone, uninterrupted. Oldest knew I was getting ready to make dinner so he wouldn’t have had reason to go in there. Youngest was actually preoccupied with something else other than my ankles. And husband had obviously just gotten his cue that his wife needed to be alone. So I had a few moments to stand and savor my hot apple cider. In peace. And boy, was it lovely. It was then that I realized THIS was my moment for the day. The one thing I could appreciate. After all, I didn’t say every blessing was going to feel magical. And that my friends, is real life.