Still working on my PhD, at the School of Hard Knocks!!

You guys, I've told you about my anxiety problems and how I hate feeling out of control. My word. Yesterday was off-the-hook out of control, it seemed!

After dropping our daughter off at school, I scratched the side of my nose and you'd think someone stabbed me in the face. Blood everywhere and no tissue or paper towel to be found. Within twenty or so minutes of being home, I found our downstairs toilet clogged (and getting with in 10ft of a toilet plunger is NOT something an OCD-prone person wants to do - GROSS!). After unclogging the toilet, I got dressed in a hurry and rushed out the door to pass out yard sale flyers with a friend. She was taking care of some extra littles yesterday, but we decided an outing would be an adventure. We took eight littles, ages five and under, around the neighborhood, to stuff yard sale flyers in 80+ mailboxes. This is the point when I was wishing I knew some pre-school teacher tricks. Pre-school teachers are amazing and always know how to control an army of little people in any situation. Winds were gusting, flyers were flying through the air and I was chasing them (with a baby riding on my back) while my friend kept the other littles in line. Despite all of the variables stacked against our situation - it turned out well and only a few neighbors stared.

When we returned home, I began cleaning and managed to knock my head (hard) on the corner of a table. A little while later, we sat down to have a late lunch and relax a moment. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the wind catch our outdoor umbrella and launch our heavy metal patio table (and six metal chairs) through the air, only to watch it all crash down the stairs of our deck. Glass everywhere and the table is a lost cause. It's always something, right? We'll be finding that glass forever. About 2pm, I realized my pants were on backwards and had been all day. I thought to myself, "it figures." And proceded with my cleaning (without fixing my pants - you know, what did it really matter at this point?). 

The rest of the afternoon seemed to be going well. The two big kids were resting, our oldest was playing at her friend's house and the baby was napping happily upstairs. I decided to take advantage of the quiet time and bake some (clean) cookies. As they were cooling, the cooling rack decided to hop off the counter - cookies and melted chocolate all over the kitchen floor. Awesome. I needed to mop anyway, right? Right. That mess was all cleaned up and it was about time for our company to come for dinner. I opened the oven door to put our salmon in when I saw something unexpected - the last batch of cookies was still in the oven. And, I'd totally burnt the tar out of them re-baked them. So, half a dozen cookies were sacrificed by the cooling rack and the others were turned to stone due to my negligence. Ok, we don't need sweets anyway. Next?

About twenty minutes later, I opened the oven door to take the salmon out. Guess what? Our not-so-cheap stoneware pan was completely split in two. OY! At least the fish was ok, but our poor pan!! We ate our dinner and had a great time with our friends without further incident. Around 9:30, the kids were all settled into bed and just as I felt that you-made-it-through-another-day feeling, I heard the cough. You know, the one that procedes you-know-what... That's right, a kid threw up (a bunch). And, in addition, the baby woke up with a fever (and then woke up again and again and again and again and peed all over me, through her PJs, when her diaper decided to leak sometime around 2 a.m.). We both got a wardrobe change and then went back to bed.

This morning, so far so good. And, you know what...it's all ok. Many, many things happened that were out of my control yesterday. I couldn't stop pans from busting, kids from vomiting, or the winds from gusting - but God ordained it all, and for that we're blessed and can be joyful still knowing that He is sovereign in everything! Amidst the craziness of yesterday, I was able to capture the picture of two of our daughters (right) and was reminded of how blessed we (all) are by little, every day moments and getting to realize the joy of those moments. Sometimes when everything seems to be going wrong, we need to look around and praise God for all the things that really do go right, and often un-noticed.