On Sunday, I took JD to the airport around 6 A.M. so he could catch a flight back to Memphis to pick up our dogs, his truck, and a few things we neglected to pack up when we came down the first time. Monday, he drove back with the truck loaded down and with his baby brother. Monday was also the day that my boys decided to wake up at 5 A.M. for a party in Mama's bed... and I'm convinced they had a little meeting while I dozed off and decided to be little hellions for the rest of the day.
Monday was one of the worst days Parenthood has ever thrown to me. The baby is cutting SIX teeth right now. The toddler didn't understand why the baby screamed all day. The baby cried when he was held; the baby cried when he was set down. The baby wouldn't nap. And all the while, my husband could not be here to help and Mason could not understand what was going on.
I'm not going to lie - I cried a lot Monday!
But Tuesday came. The sun did rise again. Monday was just a bad day.
JD made it home perfectly safe... and now we have an extra kiddo in the camper and two dogs! That makes seven of us. In 400 sq. feet. You might be thinking that we are insane but actually, we are having a lot of fun!
One of the FUNNIEST things that has come out of this camper adventure is a game I'm dubbing "Where's Mason?" He cannot open the main door to the outdoors, but he can work all of the sliding doors and door knobs inside the camper. So at night, when everyone else is asleep, he likes to go on little adventures and fall asleep somewhere other than his bed. We've found him in a variety of places....
We've found him UNDER our bed.
We've found him on the floor of his room.
We've found him on the rug in the kitchen area.
We've found him on the couch, snuggled up with the dogs.
We've found him in our bathroom.
We've even found him playing quietly and patiently in the living room.
While I have been given to wonder how much sleep the child is actually getting, it's something funny (and a little scary, until I learned how to play the game) to wake up to every morning.
Life is setting in and we are adjusting. We're not on vacation. This is real life with real bills and real jobs. However, Real Life On the Beach isn't a bad reality!
What I want to leave you with tonight is a question. A good friend of mine (who happens to live in England!) messaged me today with this amazing e-mail:
"Wish me luck. I'm officially out of my comfort zone. Bought a touring caravan, laid new carpet in it, cleaned it out and in 10 minutes decided we were off to a camp site. Chucked everything in a bag. Went to Shop for lovely food and am now on motorway (very slowly). Not as big a leap as yours but my own little triumph. Hoping the kids will love it."
Reading her message gave me the silliest little tickle in my belly. What we are doing - the happiness, the excitement, the trials, the tears - all of it has inspired someone else to get out of THEIR comfort zone and DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT. That's amazing to me.
It got me to thinking about how we all interact. How we bounce off of each other and take small things away to influence our daily lives. Who would have thought that this little blog or this move would have impacted anyone besides the two of us and our kids? So, I want you to try to think, try to become aware of how you interact with everyone around you.
Are you a positive influence that people flock to?
Or are you a Negative Nancy that people may listen to, but roll their eyes when they re-tell the story?
Is a bad day just a bad day to you?
Or is a bad day yet another reason to lose hope?
Are you setting out to inspire and transform?
Or are you just fine with being born, being alive for awhile, then dying?
You have one chance, one life, to make that dash on your tombstone mean more than just a dash....
Get your hands dirty.
If you don't like something, stop whining about it. Change it.
If something hurts you, stop whining about it and stop letting it hurt you.
But if something makes you happy... oh my, if something truly makes you happy, let it in!
Revel in it.
Dance in it's light. And never apologize for it.
The choice is yours. Make tomorrow a great day.
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