We had a grand weekend. I have been funk free for almost 3 days. Last night after church we escaped the wrath of parenthood for better than an hour. My dh took me for a motorcycle ride and we visited his uncle's pumpkin patch and crashed a friend's party. It was loads of fun. We almost ran out of gas on the way home, in fact we thought we did but my dh found the reserve button on the gas tank, whew!
Tonight the Muckdogs (my dh's amateur baseball team) cemented their place in the quarter finals of the state tourney. YEAH! We play again on Thursday evening at 6pm.
I only took one child to the game. My dd has been a turkey lately and I thought a night off might convince her that when I ask her to behave I mean it. After a whole evening away from her, I prayed with her and asked her if she wanted to go to the ballgame next time. "I don't want a brother or a mother or a father anymore," she said "they make me crabby." It is really tough, getting along with everyone. We have to make sacrifices. I stayed for the second game tonight so I could spend some time with my dh, even though I was cold and tired and would have loved to be wrapped up in a blanket in my living room watching, "Big Brother". Life is full of little inconveniences. Every day we choose which ones to suffer through and which ones to fight off.
This experience has made it so much easier for me to let those things that don't really matter in the whole scheme of things just roll off my back. I love what the parent of one of my preschoolers used to say about her children, "Choose your battles." Know when to give in and when to fight back. If my child will be harmed or may harm others, I better intervene. If he or she is just being goofy and no one is getting hurt, I may think twice before trying to stop the annoying behavior. Depends on how much energy I have, and lately I haven't had a whole lot. At the baseball game last week it seemed like every time I turned around my child was screaming or crying and I became really agitated. It's hard to not sweat the small stuff when you are exhausted. In the end, does the small stuff really matter? I can think of only a few awful times in the last 4 and a half years of my daughters life. The memories of the good times are much more plentiful. When we are standing at the pearly white gates of heaven is God going to ask us why we clicked our tongues for 20 minutes even after our mom asked us not to? I find it hard to believe that He would do that. I think he has already forgiven me for that. So, I told my daughter that I missed her sweet face at the ballgame, as did her friends and family. I told her I was sad but I have forgiven her for her behavior and I want her to come along with us to the next game. Is that a guarantee that she will be on her best behavior for the next 4 days? Nope. But I am not going to let it ruffle my feathers. I have bigger fish to fry.
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