a special reset button

Look at those pictures! That was all yesterday, another epic summer day. We went to a beach, had a picnic, played at two different parks, stopped by the Dairy Inn for strawberry malts and ended up driving by an airfield and watching all sorts of little airplanes and gliders land and take off just feet in front of us. The day was stunning and I was a happy mama.

But the day didn't start out that way. My whole crew was a moody mess when we woke up, including me. I tried to get us out of the house for almost two hours. I threatened all sorts of things that I never followed through on. I gave Elsie a choice of swimsuits and she screamed, "both of them!" Which was fine with me. I told her she could wear both. And then she screamed even more because I think she was looking for a fight, and I wasn't giving it to her. She did end up fitting both of her bottoms on and wore them proudly all day long.

We had nothing in the house for a picnic (mayonaise on hotdog buns, anyone?) So I gathered an odd mix of prunes, graham crackers and a brown banana that made me feel better but I knew no one would actually eat. I was loading sand toys, camping chairs and beach towels into the back of the jeep, listening to my daughter cry about something in the garage when I found a bag of bread Oma Zina had given to me to give to the chickens. I took a loaf over to the chicken yard, breaking it into bits, and was thinking about calling it quits on the whole outing, sending the kids to their rooms to regroup and staying put for the day.

And then Ivar shouted, "Patsy's here!" I continued to feed the chickens, took a deep breath and then turned around with a forced smile and welcome on my face and walked over to Patsy's car. Patsy is our neighbor who lives at the end of the road and seems to only stop in on the days when I am about to give every member of my family a spanking. She catches me right before I'm about to loose my mind (or have already) and then stays and talks for a long while. Her timing is so uncanny that just yesterday I saw quite clearly that Patsy is the way God helps me press the reset button on my day. Because after fifteen minutes of catching up on her kids, her grandbaby, our barn, the kittens and the volatile morning we were living through, I seem to be breathing normal again and can continue my day back in my right mind.

She left and I loaded the kids up. I filed up water bottles and we put on their favorite kids cd and took off for a 45 minute drive through the country to a beautiful county park that has this incredible playground and huge beach.

When we were all back home I was looking through the pictures of our stunning, epic, summer day. And I thought about Patsy and how glad I was that she showed up right at the wrong time and got me on my feet again.