How A Trip To The Dumpster Changed Our Day

Today started great. We had a playdate planned for the morning, a bbq planned for the evening, and (hopefully) a long nap in the middle. With Dan working long hours lately (it's 10:30pm and he's still not home) busy days are welcome distractions.

Our playdate went great. Both kids had a fantastic time and it was nice to catch up with some friends we hadn't seen in awhile. But then Joseph screamed the whole way home. And then he refused to nap. Stephanie was feeding off of his crankiness and took forever to settle down for her nap. By the time I got Joseph to sleep, it was very late. I had about 100 emails to respond to and a few blog posts I wanted to write.

I made a small dent in the emails while mindlessly devouring a bag of chips. At the end of which, my stomach hurt, I felt bloated and tried from the salt and had no energy to do anything. Joseph woke after a very short nap, but it was still late in the day and I started to fret that he wouldn't go to sleep tonight. I started to get irritable and cranky. I just wanted to curl up and do nothing.

I felt silly. I couldn't even explain to myself why I was feeling so miserable because nothing happening was that bad. But I guess when you're in that kind of a funk, it is that bad. I was in melt-down mode and felt ridiculous for it.

The thought of waking Stephanie, preparing both kids, running to the grocery store to find something to bring, and attending a bbq alone with them was the last thing I felt like doing. So, feeling horrible about it the whole time, I cancelled.

Then I whined to my blogger friends about how overwhelmed I am with the (exciting and new) blog growth that I'm hoping to see. I texted a friend to complain. I still felt blah. I got Stephanie up, and she was in major whine mode. I snapped at her. I felt guilty. Joseph was being cranky and clingy. I held him, even though it was hot and humid which added to my miserableness.

I thought about dinner. I didn't know what to make. I didn't have the energy to do anything. I was getting so mad at myself at this point for feeling this way.

Then I told myself I needed to snap out of it. Nothing was wrong, the day wasn't all that bad, and I needed to get a grip and pull myself together.

So I told Stephanie we were going to take out the trash. She jumped up and down and said "YAY, I will carry the small bag Mama." I was taken aback by her enthusiasm for this little field trip, but decided to roll with it. "You're such a big helper sweet girl! Thank you so much!"

We stepped out into the thick, muggy air. It was gross, but we skipped all the way down the road to the dumpsters. We each threw our bag of garbage in. Joseph started giggling for no reason. "Stephanie, lets go for a walk over the bridge to stretch our legs before dinnertime."

Her response? "Hooray! I gonna walk all by myself, and I going to SKIP over that bridge Mama!"

How can you not smile when you hear that? And skip over that bridge she did. Then we circled around to head back to our apartment, playing the stop/go game all the way to our front door. We walked in and Stephanie asked to eat carrot sticks. Sure kiddo, knock yourself out!

I was smiling. I was happy. The cloud had lifted. I made us the weirdest throw together dinner, but we all ate and were happy. The rest of the night went by and we were all in better moods. All thanks to a short trip to the dumpster. Who would have thought that was all it would take?

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