I was thinking about the singleness I feel. How at times you can be in a room full of
people, yet, feel so alone. Missing my
best friend. Missing my greatest
supporter. Just plain missing…everything
about him.
So grateful for friends you can call to join your pity party
and cry until the “sup sups” start…then you feel oh so much better. Yes, there is therapy in crying…lots of good,
wet, salty tears!
Then, I decided…enough with the pity party. Time to move forward! Just so you know, the pity party will come
back again someday…but fortunately it doesn’t come around very often! It is all just a part of the process…and it’s
ok.
So, how did I get myself out of my funk?
Last night, my youngest daughter had just finished
showering. She had a great time, sitting
on the shower floor playing with the designated tub/shower toys. She loves to play with them, but hates to
clean them up.
So, after she is done showering, my other daughter goes in
to take her shower and starts to throw a huge fit. She comes running out of the bathroom
screaming at her sister to get in there and pick up the toys. A screaming match starts. Great.
Being the amazing mom that I am, I decided it is not fair
for my youngest daughter to always leave the toys laying in the shower,
especially since no one else has a desire to play with them, and they can
really hurt if you step on them! I tell
her to pick them up and she says no. Really?
Did you just tell me no?
Now the battle of the wills begins. In all honesty, my children are more
strong-willed than I am…but I just knew I had to stand my ground. I informed my daughter if she did not pick
them up, I was going to take them out to the garbage in the morning and she
would not ever get to play with them again.
She said, “I don’t care. I am not
going to pick them up. I don’t really want to play with them anymore
anyway.”
I gave her every chance to go in and pick up those toys…but
she flat out refused. So, I told her
that they WOULD be thrown away. My other
daughter interjects, “Well maybe mom you better not actually throw them away
because she might want to play with them again someday, and you know how whiny
she can be when she doesn’t get want she wants.” After she said that, I realized, all the more
reason to throw them away!!!
So, she didn’t pick them up.
So guess what I did today? Yep. I
did it!
Hey, sometimes it’s the little things that make us feel
happy and amused!
I am actually glad she didn’t want to pick them up. Now, I don’t have anymore bathroom toys…just
one less thing to worry about!
Recently, I took this picture of my daughter and her
efforts, or lack thereof, to clean her bedroom.
Yep, kind of tired of their messy bedroom. I can remember my parents always getting on
us to clean our bedrooms. One day my dad
warned my sister and I, that if we did not get our room cleaned up by that
evening, something drastic was going to happen.
We didn’t get it cleaned. I guess
we didn’t believe him.
The next day we come home from school. I will never forget walking into our
bedroom. It was messy before…but I was
in total shock at how bad it looked now.
It literally looked like a tornado had hit it. There was stuff everywhere…not only did he
dump out all of drawers, empty the entire closet, take everything off the
shelves, he dumped other things in there as well. Honestly, I just remember that we had to
climb over mountains of things to get in there.
It took my sister and I along time to get that mess cleaned up. After that, we took my dad seriously. If he said get your room cleaned, we couldn’t
move fast enough!
Since my girls still have not cleaned their bedroom…do I do
it? Hah! The thought of it makes me
laugh, but the reality of it makes me think it is not a wise choice at the
moment! So, I guess not today… Who knows
maybe throwing out the toys will have some sort of impact? I can only hope.
In the mean time I feel empowered. I am doing what I can to raise my children on
my own. As a single widowed parent you feel a huge amount of responsibility in
raising your children. You are both mom
and dad. You are it…
So, my therapy for today was throwing away some toys. Who knew that could be so therapeutic. My message in this post is simple, sometimes it really is the small things that
bring us joy. It is about perspective. It is about attitude. It is about choice.
Now I can’t wait for them to come home from school and see
the empty bucket sitting there! Here’s
to empowerment! Here me roar!
