Crabby Pants

I have been a crabby pants all week.  (My husband likes to follow this statement up with something about a "crappy pants".  If you know him; this comes as no suprise, I'm sure.)

I thought the week would be great, last week was so hectic and busy that this week was bound to be fantastic.  But the cold virus (that we've been battling in a horrible cycle for 2 months) found our two year old and took her down with great force.  First with an ugly case of viral conjunctivitis, followed by not much sleeping and the inability to nap unless being held by her mother.  This should help you to understand the crabby pants.

In light of the crabby pants, I feel I should share a few lessons from this week.

Lesson #1: Jamberry nails are not as easy as they make them sound.

I bought some Jamberry's for my girls for their stockings this year.  I was so excited, since I have been wanting to try Jamberry for awhile.  When you buy 3 you get 1 free, so of course when they came I decided to try my free pair.  Round 1 was a major fail.  Apparently when heating the sticker thing before applying, you don't heat the adhesive side... that's a really bad idea as it drys out the adhesive.  Round 2 was okay... and Round 3 worked out fairly well.  My theory is that they give you the free pair because they know you're totally going to screw it up the first 3 times.

Lesson #2: Having a child with pink eye makes outings challenging. (as in you can't have any)

Nobody wants your kid's pink eye, even though its a relatively mild and simple disease.  It's actually less horrible than a bad cold, but if you have pink eye you have the plague.  Nobody wants to be around you or your kid.  So, think about drive through restaraunts and hiring a teenager to watch your child so you can take your test at church.  You know.. those things.  But it is so very cute to hear a two year old say "I have a pink eye!"

Lesson #3:  Studying for a final doesn't mean it's going to be easy.

We took our finals for our class at church on Wednesday night this week, and even though we studied, and I was pretty sure I was going to rock that test.  It wasn't easy.  I didn't rock that test.

Lesson #4:  When planning for a ballet rehearsal, or recital, or Christmas play dress rehearsal - don't let the stress get to you.

I am a perfectionist.  (May come as a legit surprise to many of you) But I really like to have my ducks in a row and to be honest... my ducks are so far out of their rows right now they're not even in the same pond.  So when recitals and performances come, my perfectionism FREAKS.  Like "You are not allowed to talk while I do your hair because it breaks my concentration" freak.  Poor kid.  (Aren't you glad I'm not YOUR parent??)  Anywho - I seem to notice that the other parents just.don't.care that much.  Why is this?  Didn't they read the note?   And when they see they did it wrong, they still don't care.  I want to be like them.  This is something I have to learn.  How do I just not care so much?

Lesson #5:  Some people are just not very nice.

We encountered on Friday a woman who thought she would take it upon herself to correct my child for doing something wrong.  Problem is; I was right there.  My child wasn't doing anything wrong.  I was taking care of the non-situation.  Mama Bear reared her head in protection and defense of her child.  My child was genuinely embarrased by the situation.  And I am still trying to figure out whether I handled it correctly or what I should have done differently.  It took me a solid 24 hours to cool down.  And I came to the realization that parenting is really hard.  I've talked the situation through with my child, and she is okay, but sadly I am not.  And I think I can remember this happening when I was a kid.  That my mom had those times when she just wanted to defend and protect us, and when someone else does that damage, beyond making sure our child is okay - you can't really undo the damage.  It's really hard.  I'm really sad that people don't know their boundaries or what is an appropriate and inappropriate way of speaking to a child (or anyone for that matter).

Lesson #6:  I need to give myself more grace for weeks like this one.

It was a big week, a lot happened.  Next week is destined to be bigger as we get closer to Christmas.  I'm going to need a lot of sleep and a lot of patience.  Thankfully we are starting to get over our colds, hopefully we can keep them away for the next few months.  And with a little more grace, and a lot more patience, and hopefully some good sleep - next week will be better than this week.

On the adoption front, we are in the painful process of waiting.  This is all normal, what we were told to expect, but it doesn't make these days seem any faster.  It is especially difficult as we know our little one is living without a family and we are here celebrating with our family, just one short.  Please pray for our son this Christmas.  We would love to hear news very soon that we will be bringing him home in a few months.  Pray for us too as we prepare our home and our family to bring him here to us.