We All Have "Bad Days"

Recently my husband and I have found ourselves caught up in a series of "bad days." I use quotes when describing these situations as bad days because I have found out through experience that what we often casually describe as a bad day is actually a day of inconvenience. After spending days upon days sitting in a hospital room wondering what would be the outcome of my sons dire health situation I now know that most of the "bad days" people have are merely days when nothing got accomplished, they faced many unwanted interruptions, or checked their bank account and found it lacking.

Facebook and I have a love/hate sort of relationship. While I love all of the miracle of technology that allows me to find someone from my past that I had lost track of and now speak with them, via my laptop, anytime that's convenient for me, I also tire of some of the 'social advertising' that I see. One my annoyances on facebook is the amount of self pity I see. Don't get me wrong I can sometimes fall into this category myself so I believe that no one is exempt from it. It often appears in a status update and goes something like this, " woke up with a headache...." or  "it's snowing again...." and it ends with something like, " I hate Mondays," or "that's how my life goes." I'm not actually writing this to complain (believe it or not), but to encourage us all to look at our lives and think of what a "bad day" really looks like.

At our house when a bad day has begun it is usually marked by my husband walking over to the calendar and crossing the day out (as though it were over) by at least 10 am. Another sign of a bad day at the Bakers is kids in bed by 6pm, now if we're not careful that can lead to bad day #2 which begins with kids up at 5 am. One of the things that I try my hardest to do in life is to find some sort of way to laugh at these days.

Here is a day that we had recently that had me laughing: It all began when we discovered we needed something that could not be purchased anywhere close so it would require us driving to Sioux Falls ( a little over an hour away). Already a little stressed to be making an unexpected trip we began to get the kids ready which looked like this: Jonas screaming while being put into his car seat and Joshua running laps around the kitchen as I chased after him with his shoes in hand. We finally make it out to the car and realize that Joshua's car seat is in the truck. We somewhat patiently wait in the freezing cold while Luke moves it to the van. We just get settled in and then the car won't start. glancing at the dash we both see that the lights had been left on over night. Well about 10 min later after jump starting the van we back out of the driveway where I notice the mailman. "Can we stop and get the mail?" I innocently ask. "Oh sure,"  so Luke pulls over to box and rolls down the window. Now if you're from an icy state such as South Dakota you may already know that rolling your window ALL the way down on a day when it is -23 (windchill) out, is pretty risky behavior. My husband ,being from Oklahoma, sometimes forgets this and now our window is stuck.

Here is the point when I began laughing - we had left the house 20 min ago and were now sitting in front of the mailbox, where every few seconds Luke would 'try' the window and it would go up a centimeter further. Sitting there with the window down, icy breeze blowing in, and kids impatiently waiting in the backseat. We laughed. We laughed hard. And almost 45 min after walking out the front door, we drove away from the house.

We cannot control every detail of our lives. Trust me, if I could, I would. Control is not the answer to our bad days, it is just opposite. Relinquishing our control is the answer. There is a passage in I Cor. 10:13 where it says that God will not give us more than we can handle. That verse has been very close to my heart. I can remember a day when the Doctors told us the results of our sons bone marrow biopsy and how his words had hung coldy in the air after he had communicated that our son would not live to become an adolescent. That day driving home I looked over to my husband and I said "God may never give us more than we can handle, but this is getting dangerously close, and I'm beginning to see 'more than I can handle' on the horizon." That was a truly bad day. Giving the control over to God and knowing that only He could get me through those days was the answer.

Take comfort in those words they are not cliche' they are truth. Cling to them when times are truly bad and find a way to laugh when days seem bad, but are just inconvenient. For a good laugh here are few short antics from the Baker house.

* I asked Jonas if he was sleepy - he burst into giggles.
* Luke brought a roll of toilet paper the dinner table to soak up the grease from his pizza.

* I put a pop tart in the toaster 15 min later I'm still waiting for it to pop up, Luke walks into the kitchen and plugs the toaster in.

* I give Joshua a big bowl of popcorn for us to share, we start the movie and I get up to check on the baby. 10 min later I come back and Joshua hands me the empty bowl and says "here you go."
* I'm walking from room to room frantically looking for the baby monitor with Joshua at my heels trying to get my attention. Finally I turn around and ask him what he wants. "Here you go momma," he hands me the monitor.

* Joshua goes to bed, 15 min later we hear a crash. We peek in his room and he's stretched half out of his bed on his stomach pulling his piano over so he can play it without getting "in trouble" for leaving his bed.

Valentine Mailbox Directions

A few people who saw Joshua's Valentine Mailbox were wondering how it was constructed from a cereal box, so here are the step by step directions if you would like to replicate it.

1. Use one cereal box

2. Cut the front panel from the box leaving the top and bottom flaps on

3.Bend the Panel to make the mailbox shape and secure the bottom by taping the top and bottom flap together.

4.Trace the end of the mailbox to make a back cover.

5. Secure the back end on with tape

6. Trace another piece for the front door of your mailbox. Trace it near a flap on the cereal box so that once it is attached it will open and close easily.

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7. Tape the flap on the door to the inside of the mailbox.

8. Use a remaining scrap draw and cut out a flag.

9. Using the scissors make a small hole in both the box and the flag



10. Secure the flag to the box with a fastener (brad)

11. Decorate!