Jen, Grace, and Luke's Blog: Fun Friday

We've had some really challenging days around here lately. By challenging, I mean demoralizing, frustrating, and just plain sad. Kids are waking up cranky and going to bed cranky. They're snappy. I'm snappy. It's been a little rough. With spring here, we've returned to the early morning wake up call (just after 6am). I actually don't mind it too much because I'm waking up around the same time too. But the kids' clocks have not adjusted yet and there's always hell to pay when that happens.

It's easy to get into a rut with days like these. As much as I say "tomorrow is another day," when tomorrow comes and the day starts miserably, it's really hard to keep your chin up. I find myself going down the old self fulfilling prophesy road: It's going to be a bad day and guess what? It was. I do realize that so much of the tone has to come from me. If I snap right back at them and it's only 7:30 in the morning, things aren't looking good for a wonderful day.

Friday I decided I was going to hang in there with Grace and Luke and plow ahead with some fun Friday activities. As much as they were cranky and irritable, I wasn't going to let them get to me. I kept telling myself over and over: "It's Fun Friday. It's Fun Friday. It's Fun Friday." I have to admit this was a real challenge but I persevered.

Our first stop was the grocery store to pick up some goodies for Tom who's been working very hard lately. Hummus, cheese, stuffed olives, and a steak later, we were off to the playground.

We hit the playground hard. This particular park has 2 nice areas to play. Then off to the pond for a picnic lunch. This was made all the more amusing by the angry geese who put on quite a performance for us. It all started with a few angry geese slamming into the water at a high rate of speed and kind of went downhill from there. Grace kept asking me why they were snapping at each other and I just kept saying I have no idea. She seemed to get a real kick out of me not knowing and shrugging my shoulders and it was good to have a silly laugh.

It was warm on Friday and everyone was hot and tired by the time we left. Super Mom that I am, I dragged them over to Rita's for some water ice. Luke seemed particular perturbed by the combination of water ice and soft ice cream. He kept repeating over and over "no mommy, no." Why? Who knows. I ate most of his (not the plan) and I have to say it was damn good!

So all in all, it was a good day and I need to take a chapter out of this book more often. The mental component of this job cannot be underestimated.

Here are some pics:

I'm in love with this picture