Weekly PD: A Helping Hand

This week's Pixie Dust came in the form of a friend's helping hand ... my friend Diana's hand, to be exact. She saved me from myself when I was melting under the heat and the pressure of survival.

These past five days seemed to be like a fragile parcel tied with string, except the "parcel" was a compilation of mishaps and milestones that were bundled together in a flimsy package. I was the string ...  attempting to hold it all together. Our air-conditioning broke ... AGAIN and our home was overcome with intense heat and humidity for 2 days. Our puppy Sailor was still mourning her sister - taking me back to the days of getting up 3 times a night. Izzy started Kindergarten yesterday (I still can't believe it) and the Fra Diavolo (Brother Devil) found a fondness for climbing. He climbed up on top of our entertainment unit and tried to rip the television off the wall, he climbed out of his high chair, smearing pasta and meatballs all over everything he touched and he later attempted to scale the walls of his bathroom by using the jet holes in the bathtub to leverage his feet. Oh, and Mr. Darling is away. Maintaining my "Positive Mental Attitude", a term coined by Mr. Darling while talking to our daughter about the importance and power of staying positive, became the least of my goals. This week, my goal was just to survive. This goal has been the theme of many weeks in the past, but for whatever reason, this week I struggled more than I have been.

Diana must have sensed this and she had the children and me over for a playdate and dinner. Getting out of our sauna, watching our children play, seeing my friend and being able to talk with another adult about life, kids and everything in between, brought me back from feeling like a thin string trying to contain life in a flimsy package. I could take a deep breath and let go of trying to keep it all together. I gained perspective on what was going on around me and  I left her home with my original goal: Maintain A Positive Mental Attitude.

Setting goals is necessary in order to achieve what one wants out of life, but sometimes we are so focused on reaching, that we forget the small goals like connecting the dots in one's day to day life or simply, just getting through the day or in my case, the week. I used to find so much shame in not being able to do it all, but as each day passes and my children get older, I have learned that there is no shame in needing a little escape from reality, to go to a friend and say, "I just want to throw my hands up". For me, just getting out and venting to Diana gave me a little bit of peace.

Here's to the beginning of the weekend and taking life as it comes, one step at a time.

With love,
Mrs. Darling