Alexander

We have a children's book called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Poor Alexander is having a rough time at school, with his siblings, and his parents. He thinks that if he just moves to Australia all will be well.

After the last two days, I feel a teeny bit like Alexander.

Here's the brief recap:

The new school year has thrown a kink into Luke's nap schedule. I pick up Fletcher at 2:05 and we get home by 2:15 or so. Luke has been going down for his nap around 1 to 1:30. I have to keep talking to him in the car to keep him awake until we get home. Well, Tuesday Luke decided naps were no fun and he was still talking in his bed at 3 pm.

Our kitchen has one of those pull out trash cans disguised as a cabinet. I must have left it open slightly because Sadie got into it (also Tuesday afternoon). There were coffee grounds, shredded diaper and who knows what else all over the kitchen floor. Time to clean up and wash the kitchen rugs.

The weather was so nice out that we went to a friend's house to play for awhile before dinner. Luke was on the top level of their play set about 5 feet up. He said he wanted to get down but I was holding Jen's baby so Jen was going to help him down. For whatever reason he started backing away from her and fell out of the opening of the play set onto the ground below. I was yelling "Luke! Stop!" but I couldn't get to him in time. Did I mention it was five feet up? He was fine (covered in mulch with even some in his mouth), but I was a bit shaken.

Kevin was out of town on Tuesday night. I always have trouble sleeping when he is gone. I finally fell asleep and was awakened at 4:42 am by the "whoo-hooo-hooing" of an owl somewhere in our backyard. It continued for a good 10 minutes until I was thoroughly awake! Grrrr!

We got Fletcher off to school on Wednesday morning only to return home to the realization that I had left our bedroom door open. We always keep it closed and I just rushed out and forgot to check. Some of you may remember from a previous post that we "retrained" Sadie to sleep on a dog bed instead of our bed. Well, in the 15 minute round trip to school, she hopped up on our bed and urinated gallons of pee. I am not kidding when I say I've never seen that much pee come out of a dog --- AFTER I already taken her out a few minutes before we left. It's like she was saving it all up. She did it on Kevin's side of the bed (remember he's not home) so clearly she is less than impressed with the care she is receiving in his absence. I think I could even say she might be a little miffed that he seems to go away every week or so.

So I strip our bed because she got it everywhere - sheets, mattress cover, down duvet, duvet cover. Time to wash everything. I go into the laundry room and I'm reminded of the kitchen rugs. Two of the three are still damp so I throw them in the dryer. Bad idea. I go back to check on them and the stuff on the back of them that makes them "non skid" has flaked off everywhere into the dryer. It was like I had dried a load of sand. So Luke and I cleaned that up because of course without his brother here he is bored to tears and has nothing to do.

But I am reminded that I have two healthy happy children. Fletcher loves school. Kevin has a good job that provides for our family. I am loved by my family and my heavenly Father. So even on those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days (or in my case, two days), I hope I can choose to find the positive instead of dwelling on the negative.

But a trip to Australia might be nice.