good day. bad day. control. letting go.

Today was a good day.

But it was lining up to have every reason to not be.

Fox has been fighting some kind of sickness for the past several days but his little conditions worsened by this morning.  Crusty, weepy eyes.  Runny, red nose.  Add in a cough and eye rubbing and general discomfort and I knew we should probably make the journey in to see a doctor.

We had a Pisgah Forest trip planned but we ditched that and I called the doctor.

“Can you be here in half an hour?” the nurse asked.

I looked around my kitchen.  Four mostly disappointed kids (they love Pisgah – and today was all about turtles) dressed in pajamas eating donut holes sitting on our counter.  Fox scarfing down Cheerios and toast at his chair at the table.  Doctor’s office at least a 30 minute drive.

“No.”

She added fifteen more minutes to the offer and I was forced to accept the challenge.

This little Band of Keigley can hustle when the need demands it and their love for baby Otto motivated them to quickly find (matching!) outfits, shoes and hats.  (Hats because who had time to comb hair?  Not us, my friends.  Not us.)

Five children in a doctor’s small exam room.  Two available chairs.  (Four kids who wanted those two chairs.)  A squirming toddler who wanted to walk.  To run.  To break free from the arms entangling him.

But London and Mosely politely and kindly corralled their younger siblings and engaged them in quiet, appropriate play.  The wait was short.  The doctor friendly.  The ordeal pretty much painless.  (Well, Fox might not agree.  He was the one with a thermometer shoved up his bum.)

Prescription needed to be filled.  Long wait at Target for said prescription.

No worries, however.  The bikes were fun to look at.  School supplies were on sale – my favorite notebooks for only a quarter.  (Yeah –  I bought 16.  Or more.)

Otto was content to sit in the big boy seat of Target’s cart and hold his blanket.  (A miracle, actually.  That child is never content in a cart.  He yearns for freedom always.)

Lunch time looming near and still quite far from home.  (Those donuts were about as long lasting as they were nutritious.)

Discovered coupons for free Chick-fil-A ice cream cones and a free spicy chicken sandwich.  Double score!

The kids rejoice at the rare opportunity to eat dessert before dinner.

Our four ice cream cone order appears as three ice cream cones and one ice cream cup.  Uh-oh.  (If you’ve ever had multiple children at a drive through you know how that small mistake can set your passengers into a tail spin.)

But nope – not today.  London happily grabbed a spoon and said she was glad to have a cup because then she could share with Otto.

The chicken sandwich was spicy.  Really spicy.

So spicy that after one bite I refused to take a second.  And I was really hungry.  (There were no donut holes left by the time the box reached me this morning.)

That turned out to be okay.

Kevin was home when we returned.  And also hungry.  And completely satisfied to eat a spicy chicken sandwich missing one small edge.

Afternoon creeps up and I remember my plan to try chicken tacos for dinner.  (Up until this evening we have been a strictly beef taco kind of family.)

Oh no – all the chicken is still in the freezer.  Frozen.  As chicken in the freezer is apt to be.

Upon further investigation it is discovered that the available chicken is not only frozen but still attached to bones.

How I loathe de-boning chicken.

Otto and Piper head for a nap and Kevin invites the three big kids (Riley is at camp this week) to go on an adventure with him to a nearby state park for a hike to deposit some of their energy into the nature from whence it came.

The two little ones sleep long and hard.

I attend to the unpleasant task of de-boning the chicken while listening to my iPod.  All alone.  I sing.  I dance a little.  I am alone (basically).

The tacos turn out great.

I experimented with guacamole for the first time after a quick text to Sally for an ingredient check.  (It didn’t taste like Sally’s exactly, but for my first time I think it was pretty darn fantastic.)

We spontaneously invited this funny guy over to join us for chicken tacos and guacamole.

This was just a day.

Nothing really spectacular.

But a day I figured from the get-go was going to be disappointing, long and burdensome.

And it really wasn’t.

I took control of what I could

and although I didn’t exactly close my eyes to what I couldn’t control

I did let it wash over me mostly.

I didn’t let it weigh me down

drag me low

keep me stuck.

(Even when it tried.)

I wore one of my favorite outfits and

my cool shoes found on sale at Mast.

I smiled and I laughed when I felt like doing the opposite.

I sort of crushed my natural emotions

(and I mean that in a good way)

because they cannot always be trusted.

They will lie to me.

And I will believe them

because that is what I do.

(I have been their victim before.)

And then I always reap the painful consequences.

So I controlled other things

(mainly my attitude)

and chose hope

because

I am trying to make those muscles stronger.

I responded as I knew I should respond –

not as my weary heart wanted.

(You know what I mean?)

And, yes,

that made a could-have-been-basically-rotten kind of day

into a mostly-better-than-average type of day instead.

(Maybe that magnet London was reading yesterday about happiness equalling wisdom has some real merit – eh?)