Morning Glory

Ah, the face of school mornings. Why are mornings so hard at our house?! I've never been a morning person. It is extremely hard for me to leave the comfort of my bed, the cozy warmth of the sheets, but Child was never like me in that respect. Up until a few months ago she always woke up smiling and happy. I honestly thought she was going to be one of those disgusting people who wake up with their rose colored glasses firmly in place, bursting out in song, kind of like Cinderella. Well, I was wrong again. Lately, the face you see above is the face common on most mornings. Let me just say, mom and dad? Now I understand and I am so sorry for every hideous morning you had to endure with me!


So, what was wrong this morning? For starters, Mean Mother did not have the approved breakfast choice. I have not had time to make blueberry muffins and of course that was the only thing acceptable to Child today. Then? The tag in her shirt was bothering her. Perplexing to me because there was NO TAG in the shirt. Ghost tag, perhaps? Of course we had the usual screaming fest when attempting to comb hair. For some reason Mean Mother cannot figure out the meaning of the word "gentle" the way Grandma understands it. After hair there was a snowpants dilemma. The phrases "snowpants don't feel good, when is summer coming, I'm tired of winter" were proclaimed loud and clear throughout the house. Finally there was the "just going out the door meltdown" in which Child sobbed loudly that she didn't want to go to school because it was a "hard day". Hmmmm, ya think???

Mean Mother sat down on a kitchen chair, pulled Child into her lap and proceeded to explain how we make our days as hard or easy as we want by how we choose to see the situations that come our way. We can choose to have a good day or we can choose to have a bad day and today she chose to have a bad day. I am not sure how much actually sank in, after all it has taken me YEARS to realize that lesson and still, almost daily, I fail miserably at making the decision to look for the silver lining in so many situations. As hard as these mornings can be, they are good lessons for both of us to learn. Life really is what we make it. I can dwell on the unpleasantness of these mornings or, I can be thankful that I have a healthy daughter who is able to get up every morning on her own and communicate to me exactly what she wants. Either way it is my choice to make and hopefully, in choosing to see the silver lining, I will be able to teach Child to see it too.