Pitch the garbage

Today was an okay day. An average, but okay day. This morning, the boys made a huge mess! Poor husband came home and didn't have to ask what we did this morning. He got to see the remains of a toddler battlefield. I raised my white flag, and clearly surrendered. Toys, play dough, crayons, paper shavings, pretzel crumbs, shredded cheese. What a mess. Just enough of a mess that I couldn't think straight anymore. I realized the kitchen rug began to take a whole new twist on the eclectic look. Picture this: "spring 2013 Mom's Housekeeping Catalog introduces floor bling".. Yes I'm talking about play dough droppings, pretzel crumbs, and shredded cheese, all over the rug. Well, it's totally in style if you didn't know.  This was my house today. Iron Man was suffocating in play dough, and probably still is. The shredded cheese bag was pulled from the counter. Correction, the opened shredded cheese bag was pulled from the counter. My youngest was showered in sharp cheddar this morning. And, today I learned that play dough sticks to shredded cheese. I thought I was nice allowing the play dough to still stay on our shelves with some dog hair mixed in. Shredded cheese is a whole new level. Play dough went to the garbage today. While cleaning up one mess, two kiddos were behind me making another. Sigh- Motherhood is all about improvising. Yep, I decided outside play for the rest of the day! Messes like these are triggers for stress to take over. Ick. Thankful that today was nice and sunny outside. I swear, the 'great outdoors' helps ease my stress.

Like the messy state of my house, that trigger went off and my mind began to clutter itself too. I allowed the mess to clone itself via thoughts and nest right in my head. My mind was cluttered with garbage. Garbage, the stinkiest was discouragement. Oh, discouragement. When you invest in a relationship and don't see the results you want, discouragement. Relationships with spouse, children, boss, friendship, or even family member. I won't say which was bothering me, other than it was bothering me. Everyone has those days. Today was my day. After my husband came home, he picked up some of the mess. Thankfully, I recognized his efforts to try and ease some of my stress. I truly am thankful for that. That man is a man with a lot of patience. He's not perfect though. lol. I realized I needed some patience in my life. The kind to keep hope or keep my focus, no matter how discouraged I may be. I learned a lesson from him tonight. Not a lesson of words, but actions. He came home after a day of work, and served me. He knew I was stressed, probably assumed I was thinking too much and he wanted to help. He cleaned up the living room (easy clean up compared to kitchen, but it did the trick) and didn't complain, didn't even say anything.  That's when it clicked. What I needed to do was zoom out my lens a little, and realize that the discouragement today is only  paving a path to something bigger than just my stress levels. Something may not turn out the way we want it to, but we just have to work with what we got. Improvise. Adding hope to the equation is crucial. Oh ya, and admitting those discouragement thoughts into Hospice will be my first step. Time to pitch the garbage. God's got this.