I'm sure everyone has felt the "Thrill" and "Agony" at some point during their lives. I'm no so sure everyone can say they have felt this within the same 24 hour span.
I have to preface this to say I have NO CLUE how single parents do this! My husband's busiest time at work is the entire month of February. I know this, I try to remember this, I try to be understanding, but halfway through the month after feeling like a single parent while my house is falling around my ears I finally lose it. The dining room chair incident had me in tears for a bit but I held it together. A few horrid three year old melt downs yesterday had me at my wits end.
We had a ton of things to do yesterday and Hubby was gone most of the day and when he was here he was working in his office. Ryan had an upwards game at the church and it was such a blessing to watch him play . (Thank you dear daughter Syd for babysitting).
We also had a family movie PJ night at church last night. It was great fun except Riley decided it was more exciting to throw popcorn, sit on top of his friends, and scream out all the words to the movie while others are trying to watch. I finally start taking him out to do time out in a quiet part of the church. I proceed to listen to him scream on and off the next half hour. The child isn't dumb, he learned at an early age his voice is his greatest weapon. I will put that child in a screaming match with any shrill little girl and guarantee he'll top them by a few decibels. He truly has the loudest scream I have ever heard in my life! The rest of the night went downhill from there.
I know I could have loaded him up and taken him home or like Greg said "just not have gone knowing it was a bad day". I look at these situations a learning opportunities. Would it have been easier to stay home? (We own the movie, he knows all the words for goodness sake and we also have popcorn) Yes it would have, but how am I teaching/training him if I never put him in public settings. It's the same with restaurants, we take him and if he acts bad then we go sit in the car until the rest of the family is done with their meal. Believe me I have eaten many meals boxed up. I want to teach him to sit in a restaurant but I also need train my family to have a servants heart... In other words once anyone in our family starts taking the joy of the experience away from others seated around us... Well that person wins a trip to the car. I refuse to have our entire family leave because the child is then learning that if they are in a situation they aren't happy about a meltdown will give them their way.... they get to leave. Believe me sitting in the car with mommy when she hasn't finished her meal is not a pleasant experience.
Needless to say we made it through the entire movie, we were all grouchy but we made it through. Maybe/hopefully next time will be better but I refuse to stay home like a recluse :-)
Today Riley woke in a great mood, as did Bella and Ryan..... after feeling so defeated last night I thought maybe God was giving me a break LOL. Then out of nowhere comes preteen angst and over emotion (and no it wasn't me). There was crying and hugging and poor Daddy was totally out of the loop. He really doesn't know what to do with two emotional females in the house :-) We left in time to get Starbucks and bonded over our Chai latte's.
Daddy had practice today after church so we are on our own again. I decided to splurge some money and weight watchers points and get 5 Guys burgers to go. (They were sooooo good it's the closest thing we have to IN N OUT burger here in Kentucky and will have to do when you just can't get to Cali!) After unloading all the kids and getting the burgers out I look over and see Riley eating a burger and fries and he stops and says his prayers, then he smiles and tells me it's good, after eating he gives me a kiss and says he wants to go night night. He also tells me about Jesus in his heart and that he loves me. You know that gives me hope that he does listen and that I'm training his heart the proper way. For today that's good enough :)
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