A Porcupine Kind of Day

Today was rough. From the moment I woke up - make that from the moment Little Man woke me up, I was very short tempered. I was on my own with him for a few hours this morning, and trying to work with a Mommy-obsessed two year old is difficult.  (While it's cute when he says "I check e-mail. I send message." it gets old when he tries to do it as I'm trying to actually work.)

This evening I was on my own with him for another few hours. I tried setting him up with Daniel Tiger while I sat next to him and did more work, then switched to Pandora toddler radio (which he liked, but he kept asking to "watch this one!" I'm guessing CD cover art and DVD cover art are indistinguishable at his age.) After a while of listening to the radio and my increasing sense of guilt over focusing on my work rather than on him, I found a toddler dance video and tried to do that together, and he got MAD. This was right around the three hour mark and I was done. I shut down the laptop and curled up on the couch with my 45 pages of graduate level reading.

My fabulous husband put dinner on the table shortly thereafter, and I went to the table in a less-than-happy mood. (I usually sit next to Little Man and Dad sits on the other side of the table. I snagged the solo seat right off the bat. Full porcupine mode, for sure.)

So...my moment? Well, on Monday nights we have dedicated family time. We sing a song, say a prayer, share a "lesson" (usually more of a thought), play a little, and wrap things up with another prayer. Dad ran the meeting because I was still in porcupine mode, and he pulled up a video from www.biblevideos.org. We watched the parable of the talents and another about "ye have done it unto me", both from Matthew 25.

I was struck by the thought of the servant who received one talent and buried it in the earth because he was afraid. However, to be perfectly honest, the best part about the videos was simply the feeling of peace that came from listening to the Savior's words. It was probably the most peaceful I felt all day, and I'm grateful for that.

The crazy added bonus of my day comes from writing this blog. As I've been writing I've realized my short temperedness (?) is probably due to my internalizing stress about meeting all my deadlines this week. I don't think I would have realized this if I hadn't taken the time to reflect on my day, so...thank you, blog.

I hope if you have a porcupine sort of day you will be able to find some peace and put down those quills for a while.