5 Bad Things

I feel like I had a good week, thinking about it as a whole. All in all, I’d give it a solid A- probably.

But when I was skimming over my highlight journal entries for the week (as I often do at the end of the week), I was a little surprised to realize that there definitely had been some “bad” stuff, too. I try my best to focus on good + gratitude here, but the reality is that life is NOT all just good + gratitude.

So, playing on my “Friday 5: Loving” from yesterday, here’s a “5 Bad Things” edition from this week. 🙂

1. Argument

The boys got in a huge argument Thursday night just before bed (I won’t disclose details, for their privacy’s sake). But it led to some serious screeching, for lack of a better word, across the hall. I was already snuggled in bed, ready to doze off….and I was NOT in the mood for their theatrics. The screeching led to me flying out of my bed, wrenching open my door, accidentally making it fling into the wall (loudly and slightly more dramatically than I intended), stomping into the bedroom yelling, “WHAT IS GOING ON?!” Ivan was close on my heels and not-so-gracefully tripped over a bag of Halloween candy lying in the middle of the bedroom floor, leading to him essentially kicking the bag across the room while yelling, “What is this doing in the middle of the floor?!” Some more “he-said, she-said” drama from all parties ensued while this argument got worked out and then we all stood there kind of glaring at each other in confused irritation. Sweet dreams, everyone! 😉

2. iPads

Ethan forgot his school iPad on Monday and called me from school to see if I could bring it. They use these iPads all day, so being without it would be pretty tough. I reluctantly agreed to stop what I was doing and drive it to school, warning him that I will not be bringing it again (this is x2 now he has forgotten it). Then on TUESDAY, we were on the way to the bus stop when Asher suddenly called out from the back seat, “Oh shoot, I don’t have my iPad…”. We were only a block from home, but still, by the time we went back home to get it, it was too late to catch the bus. So, I had to drive them to school. Not the end of the world, but annoying. As a result, they got to listen to me not-so-nicely lecturing them the entire way to school about having their stuff ready for school! (Seriously- they basically need 2 things: mask + iPad. That’s it! TWO THINGS!)

3. Unprepared

Asher didn’t finish his theory homework for piano lesson on Tuesday night (which I normally review in advance, but of course didn’t this time for whatever reason). I also listened in while he seemed grossly unprepared to play one of his 2 octave scales (that he had had plenty of time to work on). I was NOT happy with his lack of preparation and ended up charging him $5 of his own money toward the lesson cost. He also got “grounded” from a Thursday night video game date he had set up with friends.

4. Tired

By Thursday night I just felt exhausted. Like, super, super tired. I know why- I stayed up too late almost every night (thanks, election) and just didn’t sleep that well in general. But I just felt like a giant blob of mush by Thursday evening. I lost track of how many times I said, “Guys, come on, I’m tired” when I wanted them to just tone everything down. Thank goodness the boys didn’t have school Friday so the end of the week was lightened up for us all.

5. Irritated

On Wednesday afternoon I let myself get a bit too irritated with something that probably wasn’t worth it. Asher had band rehearsal (virtually), and his teacher said she couldn’t have her camera on because her internet bandwidth was used up (so, her remaining internet was working very slowly). He couldn’t even see his teacher (she could see him, at least), it kept totally freezing up and glitching/ kicking him out…it just was a mess. This isn’t the first time this has happened, either. It annoyed me because band is super expensive, and we are still paying full price even though it’s virtual. Fine, but then I think arrangements should be made somehow to get her functioning internet/ or give her a safe place to teach from that HAS functioning internet (like maybe from an empty room at school, instead of her house if her internet stinks?)! Grrr. This just really frustrated me.

So there you go! My 5 Bad Things list. 🙂 I’m glad that despite some rocky moments in there, I still feel that my week was GOOD. Progress on the journey. 🙂

“Be happy. Not because everything is perfect, but because you choose to focus on the perfect moments.”

-Anonymous

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for city leaf/ yard waste pick up in the fall.