Choosing Joy When Your Day Has Been Crappy |literally|

Teething Twins – this means, no schedule- they eat whenever they feel like it, they have fevers, put everything in their mouths, drool and have weird bowel movements. Why teething Whhhyyy!

On this particular day, I had changed the twins poopy diapers almost 3 times EACH before 9:00am. Where is this stuff coming from ladies? Geesh! Changing multiple diapers before 9:00am gave my toddler free reign for 2 minutes. Have you heard the saying “silence is golden, unless you have a toddler- then it’s suspicious?” I quickly found my toddler in her room in her teepee. She had taken my makeup case that included every nice piece of makeup that I own from my bathroom sink, ran to her room like the speed of lightening & gave her and her teepee a makeover.

Let me paint the picture– She had c-section scar cream on her face and legs, she took my mascara to her upper lip to make a nice Hitler stache (pictured above), and glossed up her sweet little lips. She also took the eyeliner and mascara to the white teepee and went full Picasso. I kid you not, this masterpiece was done within 5 minutes. Impressive!

When I found her, she started crying immediately. Shockingly, I didn’t yell but she knew it was not a good situation and Mama was less than thrilled with her talents.

I calmed her down and had her help me clean up the crime scene. When we were finished, I changed her because I smelled something so bad. I figured it was her – there is no way the twins went AGAIN. Her pull-up was clean. I went back to the twins and changed one that I thought smelled – NOPE it wasn’t you, it had to be YOU. Then I look down at my sleeve “IS THAT POOP?” I yelled to myself. My arm looked like I had wiped a butt clean with it. In the heat of the moment, I did not realize the smell was actually ME!

I looked at the clock and hoped it would be close to lunch/naptime so I could catch my breathe from the insanity I felt. No naps in sight- It was 10:00 AM -Sweet!

To my fellow Mamas who are tired of the saying “the days are long, but the years are short” – this is so so so true & I agree with it whole heartedly but in moments like these, in the total chaos, it doesn’t always help. It doesn’t help when you have an insane amount of mess to clean up and there is POOP on your arm and you just feel plain overwhelmed.

If you let it, that crazy moment can take you over. You can wallow, you can cry, you can be consumed with jealousy as you think of someone that is at work, drinking hot coffee and doesn’t have little people touching them all day long. You can sit there with your poop covered family and let that negativity overwhelm you, to cripple you. YOU DON’T HAVE TO! During these insane moments, STOP. You have a choice in the moment. That choice is JOY. In the chaos, how do we find that little tiny piece of joy. Obviously, in these moments, I would like to walk out the door and go to the Ritz Spa, but thats not reality.

How do we choose joy in these moments? We may do it with our teeth clenched through frustration or desperation, but we have to do it. If we do wallow, it will steal the joy right out from under your children’s childhood and from your experience with them. We have ALL wallowed at some point right? We are humans after all. No matter what anyone says “wallowing” doesn’t make you feel good and it will for sure not make your kids happy.

The things I have found that make me choose joy in the moment of CRAZY on steroids are the following:

1. PRAY – I have a literal “Jesus, take the wheel of this crazy train” moment. I try to intentionally pray for the things I need him to intervene in.
2. Make some sort of a change. If things keep getting worse and worse that day, change your scenery, go to the playground or just drive around and blast your favorite music in the car. “No time for Baby Shark or Moana Soundtrack kids, Mama is trying to gain her sanity back.”
3. I try to stay off social media until the moment exits and I feel a bit better. I don’t think its good to look at social media when you are frustrated, vulnerable or overwhelmed. I will just come across someone on vacation on the Amalfi Coast and I. WILL. LOSE. IT. We are trying to be joyful here!!
4. Plan something for yourself to do when you can be relieved of baby/toddler duty. I usually go get my nails done, take a bath and lock the door, go to Publix alone, or task my hubby to pick up wine on the way home.
5. Breathe. DEEPLY!

I tried to do this that day- I did my best to remove myself from the downward spiral that it can tend to be and then I end up taking the “crappy day” out on my sweet Hubs. I learned from the morning and how I could change some things to make life easier. But, some things are out of my control.

Let me also throw in – there was a time I was attempting to “choose joy” in the chaos and loaded up the twins and Ella into the car by myself (to change scenery) and went to Boxi Park, a park that has shipping containers that are like permanent food trucks and a huge playground. Yes- this was a bold move to do alone. On the way, I ran out of gas on the highway. I just got a new vehicle and I just wasn’t use to the gas icon and in the hustle to load the car with 5000 children, I didn’t look. You can’t make this up. My husband had no service where he was. I called a road ranger aka: angel man, who helped and was on my way. With a sobbing Mom at this point, the kids made it to Boxi Park. My husband left work, surprised me at the park and bought me my joy, a mimosa, lunch and a helping hand.

As we attempt to find the good things in the chaos – things can still go wrong. I will say this time and time again, it is about how we react that will get us through to the next day. I am pretty sure I let out one big cry fest when my husband walked up to the park that day but then I put it behind me.

Mama girls – you might be dealing with MUCH bigger problems than mine. I have no idea what you are going through and whether this little list or hearing my stories are something that is actually beneficial to you. But I have learned that wallowing helps nothing – so let’s get up and choose JOY gals!

I can’t exactly tell you “when life gives you poop, make lemonade,” but well, you get the picture right?