List of good things

Yesterday was a perfectly miserable day of traffic jams and road-side pit stops for desperate toddlers; of losing my temper with a shivering, nervous boy and snarling at him when he freaked out and took forever to pee during said pit stop; of skidding into new classrooms and rushing back out again, with only a brief pause and a hurried goodbye; of more traffic and running into the doctor's office just in time; of a baby's heartbeat that took far too long to find, while I shut my eyes and tried not to cry; of hip pain and general pregnancy discomfort amplified by tension; of work issues and daycare issues and finally, at the end of the day, sleep and potty training issues. It sucked, and when I woke up this morning at 3 AM to change Micah’s wet sheets, I realized today wasn't going to be much better, at least on the front end.

Then, when I got to work, I remembered I needed to finish my 8-hour OSHA HAZWOPER supervisor training, which consists of a mind-numbingly boring narrated online class. That was pretty much the final straw, until I realized I could surf the net while the narrator was slowwwwwwwly droning on. And so I decided to take some time today to find things that make me smile.

1) I bought this print from papermoth on Etsy. Maybe it'll end up in the new nursery. Maybe not. But I love it, and I wanted it, and now it's coming to me. (Yay, retail therapy!)

2) Thanks to Dooce, I found this little guy from Kauzbots. He's everything a nerdy environmental engineer could want in a toy. Adorable AND for a cause near and dear to my little bleeding heart. I haven't bought him yet, but I'm thinking Micah just might need this in the near future.

3) I finally bought a wall decoration I've been eyeballing for a few months. More retail therapy, maybe, but it was fairly cheap, and it'll probably end up in the nursery too. Nursery shopping is completely justified, right?

4) I spent quite a lot of time browsing Lay Baby Lay and fantasizing about ridiculous and expensive nursery decorations. I haven’t let myself do anything like that before now, and between that and the purchasing of possible nursery items, it was very therapeutic. It was like finally admitting that maybe, just maybe, everything is going to be okay with this little girl.

5) I spent even more time poking around Paper Source, and found this Bunny Beanie kit. I want to get the kids together and make these sometime before Easter, because the thought of all of them running around in bunny beanies makes me deliriously happy.

6) And then, at the end of the day, I spent some time browsing a site my Aunt Bonnie linked to the other day. At the bottom of the home page, there were a few paragraphs in defense of geraniums. I happen to agree with the author; geraniums make me think of my parents' front steps, and I love their smell. And at the very end, she said:

"These are flowers through whom you can smell dirt. And all of us come from the dirt. And all of us are heading back there. Thanks be to God, for giving us a season here under the sun. Reach for it while you can."

And that was exactly the reminder I needed to put one bad day in perspective.