Life is far from perfect.
I had a great list of free/cheap activities to do with my boys for Valentines Day! I was going to take them to a local story time, grab a free breakfast at Chick-Fil-A with free rewards on my app (it’s seriously the best!), then actually spend some money and grab Valentine’s Donuts at Krispy Kreme. The following is what really happened…
I love taking fun pictures of my boys. I also love sharing those pictures! Yet, even when they give me the most perfect smiles and (almost) every hair is in order and they don’t have any stains on their shirts, the moment usually was never perfect. Yet, I want to remember all of these imperfect moments for what they are. You may see clean, smiling faces, but I see the amount of effort it took to make that picture happen. Because, you see, threenagersdon’t usually get the memo that they really don’t have a care in the world and life at their age should be fun. And threenagers REALLY don’t understand that holidays are supposed to be fun and stress-free.
On that same note, anxiety doesn’t understand, either. No matter how little effort I put into a day (so as to keep the stress level low), holidays often still seem stressful to me. Yesterday was supposed to be a fun day. I had a morning full of activities planned to get us out of the house and I was excited for our day. However, the boys woke up on the wrong side of the bed and couldn’t seem to recover. We left the house over an hour late so we missed Story-Time and grabbing a free breakfast at Chick-Fil-A.
At this point I was in tears and the boys had thrown about a million tantrums. I thought about not going out at all. But that felt wrong- like the bad morning would win if we didn’t go. So I put the boys in the van and we headed to what was supposed to be our third activity of the day – Valentine’s donuts at Krispy Kreme. I’m really glad we did.
When we got there the sign was lit up. I hope you know what that means!! 1 free donut for each of us! We went inside and had fun watching the donuts go through the cooking process. We each got our own free donut and they were delicious. When we went to sit down we found a fun red couch that made for a fun little seating arrangement. And the boys (sorta) cooperated for Valentine’s pictures.
While the threenager attitudes continued until Daddy got home (with what’s becoming our traditional Chinese takeout for V day) and it was a hard day, it was also a good day. I’m choosing to remember the enjoyable moments at Krispy Kreme over the attitudinal issues we had the rest of the day. I’m focusing on the positive moments in our day, like dinner and playtime with Daddy.
I also am thankful that Luke allows me my frustrations and still tried hard to make it a fun holiday. I really enjoyed the gifts he got for me, our Chinese takeout, and Cocoa Dulce Fondue for Two after the boys went to bed.
Life is far from perfect. That doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyed.
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