Good intentions

Today was a good day. Motherhood was fun today. I didn't even sleep last night (Chloe was up with a high fever from her flu shot), but today just felt easy.

We went to the grocery store at 8am, because I needed caffeine and we were plum out (gotta put on my oxygen mask first, before helping my children;). Somewhere between waking up and the d00r to Pick N Save I got creative energy. What usually can be a real headache, turned into a fun outing.

There are very few people in the grocery store at 8 am. We played "I Spy" in the produce section. The kids had fun helping me gather our veggies. Phin needed a little extra help, but Ava had a blast picking out the perfect tomatoes and cucumbers. I also let them each pick one fruit. Ava got adventurous and went for the pineapple. Phin seems to be a creature of habit and picked red seedless grapes- a fruit that regularly makes it's appearance at our home.;) I then had them help me with cheese, yogurt, and eggs. We really had a great time and as the other shoppers (all old women at 8 in the morning) gave me smiles, I felt like I was on top of the world.

On the way home I thought about how perspective changes things so much! Instead of yelling at my kids today for grabbing things off the shelves, I was able to engage them. Instead of leaving the store with a headache, I left with a full heart. It really energized me and put a positive spin on our entire day. Here we were in the middle of a Sheboygan Winter, unable to go outside and we didn't even watch TV. It's no surprise my children were gems....how much of their misbehavior is fed off of my underlying angst? I even found myself being extra productive during nap time (which was long today because Chloe was extra tired from her sleepless night). We ended the day by making gourmet pizza for papa (caramelized onions, baby bella mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes on whole wheat crust) and plain old cheese pizza for the kids- flour is still every where from my little "helpers" and they "sampled" so much of the shredded mozzarella we had to cut up cheese sticks on their pizza.

I also was fueled with creative ideas for future days. I don't know how many of them will get "done", but I wrote them down, cuz I'd LOVE to do at least some of them. First on my list is cutting up my seed catalogs (AFTER planning my garden and ordering my seeds, of course;) and making "I Spy" grocery cards for Phin. A once dreaded task with three kids has now moved into the "winter outings" category;) Next, teaching my kids to clean...hey who doesn't love a spray bottle, right? (Okay- maybe I'm sniffing glue on thinking that one will be a success, but why not see the glass half full;)