The Mondayest Monday that ever Mondayed.
Yesterday was not my best day.
If you follow me on Instagram (@karen.w.cooper) you got in on some of the highlights real time.
The cats broke one of my absolute favorite trinkets.
My oldest and youngest have taken over the dining room with Perler beads (created by satan himself, I’m sure of it) which would be one thing, except the cats have figured out the joy of scattering them off the table and all over the floor. Little, tiny beads EVERYWHERE.
As I encouraged some help from the two oldest kids, fights ensued. Yelling. Name calling. Suddenly everyone who had been bored and pacing around the house trying to talk to me all morning had lots of work to do.
Clearly none of the “synchronous” learning that our school system is doing was happening in my house today. And realistically not much any other day two. I know the oldest two will be okay. They stay reasonably caught up despite what is going on, but the youngest is a mess. We try conferences with his teacher to set goals for the week (he goes to Montessori) but nothing is happening. He has some challenges already of his own, and I fear that I am failing him and he is falling further and further behind.
So we all took a time out. The cats. The kids. Even me. (The dogs were busy snoring somewhere, oblivious to all the goings on … until the slightest breeze brushes past the window then the barking starts, but that’s a story for another day.)
And it made all the difference. I chose the front porch for my time out, and between the fresh air, planning out my to dos for the week, and watching some real estate educational material on team building and leadership on my phone, within a relatively short period of time I felt like a new person.
This too shall pass. Some weeks it feels like I have more challenging days than I have good ones. I’ve learned though (and I often need to re-learn it) that the best thing I can do is get quiet first, get outside, dump out my brain on paper, and immerse myself in some sort of learning. All easy. All free. There are so many excellent opportunities online right now, there is no reason not to.
What fills your cup when it feels like your day is coming apart at the seams?
