Little Wins

Ok, so let me just start this one off by admitting that I am a HUGE emotional wreck today. My hubby left us again this early a.m. for another week. My kids got up at 5:00 a.m. shortly after he left. I could not sleep all night because I kept THINKING about him leaving in the early a.m. I only have 2 more Saturdays and 1 Sunday with him before he leaves again for another 11 weeks. My house is a massive wreck. I lost my wedding ring. I gained back 2 lbs. AND it is that time of the month - which is why I am sure the emotional fiasco is well displayed. So, i am writing this now before I update everything else, or I will forget the wonderful reminder of the Lord's tender mercies.

So, Sundays are always bad days. My boys are so rambunctious and I will throw everything I have at them to try and keep them still for even a second in sacrament meeting. Brett has been with us for the last 2 Sundays, and will also be here next Sunday - so they are a little more bearable with a have someone to help tag team them with me. Any who, I had to lead a choir number and before I even went up there, i had managed to snag my pantie hose. Cason had a melt down 2 seconds before I went up and I had drool down my backside and also crayon mark where Cason had been stuffing crayons under my but on the bench. So, I am sure I looked wonderful in front of everyone who, because I am the choir director, gets a nice view of my butt-x. I had also forgotten my wedding ring. I thought I had taken it off in Adalie's bathroom, because I usually do when I fix her hair. That way the gel doesn't get stuck in my ring and get it all sticky. So when I looked down, i really didn't think too much of it not being there because I have done that before - left it on the bathroom counter. We got home from church, and it always gets so super busy and hectic the moment we walk in. It's 4:30. Church clothes are quickly shed and ALL over the house.  The kids are whiny for a snack. We are trying to get dinner going. The football game is starting, but the kids want a cartoon. We let them have a movie, but now they fight about which one it will be. Still trying to get dinner going, and while in the process there is all kinds of food and utensils all over the counters and floors. Brody is extra clingy and tired because he only slept for an hour before he had to wake up for church. I had a HUGE headache and it is creeping back even now just thinking about the day yesterday.....it was just so, so much crud that didn't really go away when I woke up. Dinner was still on the counter and the floors. Church clothes still on the floor. Baskets upon baskets of clothes needing to be folded. Dirty dishes everywhere. Still whiny children because they decided to wake up at 5 and 5:30. Left over remnants of Brett getting ready to leave the house. AND i realized i had never found my wedding rings...and here is where the story serves the purpose for me and I quit whining myself.

I went into the bathroom expecting it to be on the counter. Wasn't there. I was a little worried, but not too much because even if Cason had played with it or moved it it had probably just fallen on the floor. Looked there too...nothing. Sometimes, I also leave it by my bed stand where i put my lotion on. So i took a quick look there too....nothing there either. Then I started having thoughts of Cason trying to maybe "clean it" in the sink and it falling down the drain. Or maybe he had the urge to flush it?? Start panic mode. Grabbing a flash light to look down the drains. Tearing up every room thinking maybe it fell off somewhere...then I get a flash of a memory and i knew EXACTLY what had happened to my rings, although NOT good news. While driving in the car on the way to church, I opened the glove compartment where i keep some extra lotion, took my rings off and set them in my lap. After putting the lotion on though, I never put my rings back on. I got out of the car and unloaded children with them still in my lap. Which, thanks to gravity of course, they fell off as soon as a stood up and I never even noticed. So after being out all morning with the boys running errands and grocery shopping, I made them climbed in the car while i begged and pleaded with the Lord to help me find my ring. I was headed to the church thinking maybe someone had found it and put it in the lost and found? Maybe by some miracle it was in the grass where we had parked?? Just hoping, and balling my eyes out, the whole way there. So I park close to where i think we were on Sunday and start walking around. After about 15 mins, I find my band. I am happy, but it is only a cheap band I wear with my engagement ring because my real one has broken and sits in my jewelery box at home - so I am not THAT happy. It's my engagement ring i would really like to find. After walking over the same spot 50 million times (i kid you not) i finally see a glimmer of something in the middle of the parking lot about 10 ft away. IT IS MY RING!! I broke down. Sobbing on my knees in that parking lot, with my boys yelling at me through their car windows that they want out!! I get back into the car and Cason is asking why and I am laughing and crying at the same time, and doesn't quite get the explanation of "i am happy".

So point of the long, drawn out story?? I am so incredibly thankful for the Lord and the way he cares, even about my trivial things that probably have nothing to do with my spiritual progression. The little wins he lets me have. Like my kids sleeping in an extra half hour from time to time. The stain finally coming out of a shirt I have washed a million times. The right lid to my dinner pot that it took forever to find. The chocolate milk spill that came out of my new couch. Brody throwing my new galaxy note across the room and the screen not cracking. Finding that cricket in my bathroom that has kept me awake nights upon nights with it's ear-piercing chirping. Helping me find my wedding ring, that not because it is the most expensive thing in the world and i would have been upset to lose that much money in something, but because it has so much more meaning behind it than that for me. Things like this really remind me that He is very aware of me and my situation and does not forget me in HIS prayers either. He is always on my side and will always take the time to remind me of that.

Anywho, my emotional wreck of a day or two has turned into be a very, very grateful day. Although my house is still a wreck, I have absolutely no energy to do a single thing, and my kids are still incredibly whiny -- that's just life right now and today I have turned out to be ok with it!