Salvaging The Week

My last post about our terrible, horrible no good very bad week was pretty pathetic, right?

I’m happy to report some good did come out of this week at home with E.B. We finally ventured outside Wednesday and washed down all of the outside toys and I said yes to swimming, so E.B. completely wore himself out playing in the water and eating popsicles.

On Thursday my grandmother and I took E.B. on a visit to a nearby town to see my cousin and get ourselves fitted for wedding attire. Angie is getting married next month and I will be a bridesmaid and E.B. will be a ring bearer. E.B. behaved pretty good on this trip and was quite smitten with himself when he tried on the tux coat. I was pretty smitten, too. He looked cute enough to pinch.

I went back into work Friday because my bosses needed me to fill in. It’s not entirely uncommon for someone to stop in the bookstore to sell tickets for benefits or ask for a donation for someone who is sick. Today a mother came in asking for donations for her daughter who had cancer. This child was probably about 6 or 7. The mother looked haggard and completely tired…you could literally see in her eyes the toll this had taken on her. And there I was with a completely healthy, living, breathing child who tries my ever-loving patience, pushes me to the brinks I never knew existed, and defies all predictability.

And deep down, I love it. Despite the fact that some days I feel ill-equipped to raise this little ball of energy and constantly wonder if I’m doing it wrong, I deeply and fiercely love my son and that’s enough to bring me back to some semblance of sanity on a particularly tough day of parenting.

What a blessing to ride on this ebb and flow of motherhood.