Sometimes the Hard Times Are the Best Times

My kids have been driving me crazy. I'm going to go ahead and blame the super blood wolf moon (not sure I got the order of the descriptors right, but let's go with it). We didn't get up to see it, because I was not interested in getting myself and my children up in the middle of the night after one had tested the limits of some very important boundaries at dinnertime and the other had shown up after midnight to sit on me and communicate with the man inside her finger. (If you've seen Muppet Treasure Island, that might make sense to you. If not, just suffice it to say that she was being super weird.)

Parenting is a joy and it is also stupid hard sometimes. Sometimes it's stupid hard at the same time that it's a joy. I mean, having my child keep me from sleeping in order to communicate with her finger is pretty hilarious as well as annoying. But beyond that, some of the hardest times that I've worked through with my children have led to some of the sweetest revelations. I wouldn't have one without the other. The hard and the good come together.

This is what I am making note of in this season of parenting. Yes, we have some times that are only wonderful. We have some times that are only terrible. But mostly, it's a mix, and I have a choice in how I respond. I can get annoyed and stay annoyed, or I can recognize that annoyance is part of the deal and move on. I can think of all the jokes we have that came out of poor choices that each of us has made and how my kids forgive me for the annoying things that I do, too.

I am doing my best to reframe things to recognize the good in every situation. For the situations that are only terrible, those are allowed to simply be terrible. I'm not going to try to get blood from a turnip. But in most cases, I can find something good, and that's what I'm aiming for.