Glad Monday is Over

Monday struck me as an odd day. For one thing, it didn't go very smoothly for our little family.

After a night of getting up 3 times with 2 of the kids (and believe me, I explained to the 9 year old that if she wakes up at 2am and needs to pee, she really doesn't have to wake me up and tell me that first)...the morning came far too soon.

The kids dawdled, I grew even later for work. Every lane I chose became the "slow lane". I was a full hour later for work than I should have been.

When I reached my desk I realized I'd left my backpack/briefcase in the car. When I went back out to the car I found that our oldest daughter had left her bottled water and packed lunch in the van. (And by then it was 10:30 am, and I couldn't have reached her at her elementary school nearly and hour to the north in time..) I was singing to myself: "Just one of them days..." and trying not to worry. It's just a Monday.

At lunch, I found this really interesting article at the NY Times:
Good article at: Link

The idea that children are a loan and a gift from God and that our job is to train them up to leave us (their parents) is one I can whole heartedly agree with.

Then the school shooting in Pennsylvania Amish country hit the news. I remember thinking: It's official. There is really no "safe" place anymore.

And if there is no safe place - the temptation to try to keep my children close, to try to keep them "safe at home" is stronger than usual.

But then I remind myself that I cannot support their growth into independent, self-relient young people if I shelter them exceesively. I'm a worry-wart by nature.. but I fight it constantly because I don't want to pass my fears onto the kids.

I felt very tired and like I'd run a marathon at the end of Monday. Relieved to be home with the kids - but not sure how I could keep up the pace. After a good night's sleep I realize all that I can do is get up and do it all over again.

Is it too Polly-Anna to say that after a short night of sleep I have hope in the new day again? That I realize I have to live life and let the kids go to school and simply have faith... Faith that today will be a better day. That the kids will be safe at school. That as a reaction to the growing violence people will work harder to keep guns from unstable people who shouldn't have access to them. That my children will grow up and they and their peers will seek peace and diplomacy not war.

Yes, maybe I'm too Polly-Anna. But I'd rather have this optimism to start each day then the sort of exhausted pessimism I felt just before falling asleep on Monday night.