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Frazzled

Sometimes I am just frazzled! I mean, I am all about “let it go” and “just be patient,” and I truly believe those things, and I do practice what I preach.  But sometimes….  

Like last Thursday night.  Hubby was out of town, I had all five kids to myself, and they were all rowled up!  We had frozen pizza for dinner yet the kitchen was still a disaster.  We had our four-year-old’s birthday party here at our house nearly a week earlier, and the house still looked like the party-goers had just left.  The little kids wanted to sleep in my bed since hubby was gone, which was fine, but then they cried forever before going to sleep saying “It’s scary in here!” The teenagers were all on their phones and were laughing at memes and listening to the latest rap songs.  It’s cool that they were all getting along, but then again, it was super annoying…because they were just so loud!  The 12-year-old was still getting over a cold.  I was glad she was feeling better but there was still all that coughing.  Hack! Hack! Hack, hack, hack!

Besides all that other ruckus, the football game was on.  We rarely have sports games on so I’m not really used to the incessant announcing and talking and commentating and the sudden loud outbursts from our son.  And then there she would go again…Hack! Hack! Hack, hack, hack!

And of course, I had forgotten for the past two weeks that our freshman daughter needed a book for her English class.  And of course, she had to have it by the next day or her grade would be affected.  And of course, there were no available copies at local stores.

Not to mention, the next day was pajama day at school for our first grader.  And the pajamas she wanted to wear were dirty…like wadded up in the corner of her room with some random stuff and a damp towel on top dirty.  Ok, no problem, I just went ahead and started washing clothes.

So there you have it.  The game with the crowd and the talking and the random loud cheers and the commercials in between.  The rap music and the memes and the laughing and the cackling.  The hacking and the coughing.  The whining and the crying.  The mess and the mayhem. Hack! Hack! Hack, hack, hack!

I know it’s not just me.  I know we all have our moments. 

So I had my moment.  

I sat there amid the chaos with my 7:30 morning make-up barely visible except for the faded black smudges underneath my eyes from where I had rubbed it off and rubbed it in.  That day I had actually fixed myself up so I could go around town running errands.  All of that was completely unnoticeable as my skinny jeans had given way to my same old yoga pants (which are not used for yoga, I might add) and an over-sized t-shirt.  I knew that if I were to go to bed, I could have gotten a full six and a half hours sleep before my alarm would go off the next morning.  But we all know I was not going to go to bed right away, and we all know I was not going to fall right to sleep.  Just as I was calculating how many hours of sleep were even possible, my fourteen-year-old asked if she could sleep in the bed with me since dad was out of town.  Of course you can, I told her, just move over the two sleeping toddlers who have already claimed their stake!

But this is what we do, right?  We go and we go and we go.  We take care of all who need taken care of.  We do all that we can do each given day.  I bet most days we can do it all with a smile on our faces.  But sometimes, we are just frazzled.  Sometimes we just feel like we are at the end of our own little ropes.

I’m here to tell you that is ok!  I’m going to give you permission to take your moment whenever and however you need to do it.  For me, I sat right there on a big comfy chair in the living room (I picked the chair so I wouldn’t be laid on or elbowed by one of the other people in the room!). And then I just started to write my little heart out.  This is my therapy, this is what I do in my moment. Maybe you take a hot bath, maybe you go for a walk, maybe you go read a book, maybe you text a friend, or maybe you avoid all text messages currently sitting on your phone.  Whatever it is, have your moment and take care of you!


The truth is, we are all doing the best we can.  Truth is, we all get a little frazzled sometimes. While we may be quite wondrous and super, none of us are Wonder Woman or Superman.  I am here to tell you, live in the moment whenever you can, and you take your moment whenever you need!

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