Calgon...Take Me Away!

It has been a terrible day. Awful. But before I tell you about how terrible my day has been - and it's only 11am - I must first tell you about the preceding days, so that you can really feel my pain.

I have had this terrible mom-cold that started a week ago. I say, "mom-cold" so that you do not confuse this with a "man-cold"! The mom-cold is a full out terrible cold that lasts longer than it should because her job never ceases and there is no one to relieve her so that she can rest and get better. The house work still continue, the children still need to be fed and the diapers... yes, they have no sympathy for the mom-cold. On the other hand, the man-cold is barely a sniffle that requires lots of rest, bemoaning and pampering. A man-cold takes an average man and turns him into a 10 year old boy that needs his mom. Now, I am not going to name names, but I have had personal experience with a man who has had a man-cold.

As usual, I digress... I got this killer mom-cold but lucky for me, my mama was coming into town. She understands the mom-cold, not only understands but came with the remedy for the mom-cold: no cooking by the patient, taking care of the patients children and (this is the important one!) shopping. After she left on Sunday I was feeling much better. Not 100%, but lots better than before she got here.

Then Joseph started his new rotation and it is a bad one. 12 hour days, 6 days a week with some "mandatory fun" thrown in there to really make me mad. In case you are wondering, this weeks mandatory fun was going to a bar to play craps. Well, that's a bunch of crap to me!

To top that off, my washing machine broke. On one hand, I'm thrilled! I hate doing laundry. On the other hand, as the laundry piles up my heart starts having palpitations! Words cannot express how much laundry I do in this house, but I'm sure you remember this. Lovey tried to "fix" it last night (fixing usually involves tinkering, dismantling and then kicking it) without much success. So we have to buy a new one.

Then today I wake up and during my quiet time I ask God to teach me to show patience and self-control to my children through my actions. And boy did he give me lots of opportunities this morning - all of which I failed. And not just failed, but failed miserably. The girls woke up sick and everything I asked the boys to do they did the opposite of. And the word "everything" is not an exaggeration. I spent most of the morning getting irritated and fussing at them. Caleb felt so sad he didn't want to go to school. Ugh. I hate when I get this way. I fail way more than I succeed. And my kids are the ones that suffer from my failures.

I need grace today Lord, and I really hope that I get out of this funk that I'm in...