Confession

I have a confession to make.

Sometimes my kids drive me nuts.

There are days when I'd like to send them to work with McHubby!  Days when I'd like to hide in the bathroom.  Days I'd like to pull my hair out.  (But the pretty, new hair color I'm sporting prevents me from doing so!)  There are days when I feel like I might be raising zoo animals!

Today was one of  those days.

After breaking up fights, mopping a flooded bathroom floor (bath time=FIASCO), and cleaning toothpaste out of the carpet, I had had enough!  "Alright, alright," I hollered, "that's it!  Get your shoes on, now.  We are getting out of the house!"

I grabbed my keys and ushered us out the front door.  Harmon's--our "friendly neighborhood grocer," with a deli that is to die for and a bakery that is deliciously sinful--was to be our sanctuary...err, destination.  I hoped to locate some sanity somewhere between the cereal aisle and the snack foods aisle.  Plus, we were out of milk and laundry detergent (and Monday is laundry day...blech), so a trip to Harmon's was absolutely warranted.

While perusing produce and inspecting bananas for optimal ripeness, I happened to notice Ms. Lilly was dancing around the cart with a bag of gummy frogs in her hand.  (I told her she could have them as long as she "shared them with Cam" and "stopped squawking like a rooster" because she was "startling the other shoppers.")  She was prancing and twirling around on her tiptoes; her messy ponytail flopping against her small shoulders.  She was happily chanting:  "Mom, you are the best mom ever.  You are the greatest mom ever."

I was a little preoccupied by the nectarines, so was halfheartedly and distractedly replying,  "That's nice, Lil" and "Thanks, Lil."

"Excuse me?," an older woman in a funky, floral dress asked.  "Did she just tell you you're the best mom ever?"

"Oh!  Yes, yes she did," I said, somewhat embarrassed.

The woman dropped some broccoli in a clear, plastic bag and said, "Overhearing her say that to you made my day!"  She began to laugh, then asked, "Does she say that all the time?"

"She does," I said, also laughing.

The woman replied, "Well then, she must make your day too!"

KA-BOOM!  Her comment, like a bolt of lightening, struck me down!  I looked at Lilly--skinny legs pirouetting and brown eyes sparkling--and realized she does make my day brighter.  Even hard days, like today.  I just have to remember to look for it.  Suddenly, in that epiphanic moment, everything changed.  My day changed.  My perspective changed.  My attitude changed.

Had I just found my sanity in the produce section of Harmon's?!

As I walked out to my car--with a grocery cart full of kids (and lemon poppy seed muffins and jalapeno salsa and "Chile Picante con Limon" corn nuts...OH MY!)--I thought about attitude.  Sometimes, all we have to do is change our attitude to improve our day.  Sometimes, we need a woman in a funky, floral dress to remind us.