Being the Sucky Brownie Mom and Getting Perspective

Do you ever have one of those days when you feel like everything is easier for other people? Like you are the only one in the world who can't get your act together enough to make it through the day unfrazzled? This is a picture of the recycling that is sitting on my counter waiting for me to sneak into neighbor's recycling bins:

In case you are wondering, the large light behind it is a HappyLite (for those of us who live through sunless winters and need a little pick-up)!!! I haven't gotten to the recycling in 4 days. And you can pipe down about that wine bottle, I wasn't the one who finished it off:)

Jojo left for a Brownie outing this morning at 7:30am, lamenting the fact that I still hadn't sewn all her patches on from December. Those patches are a bitch to sew on, ask anyone. I have tried hot glue and staples (not lying) but neither can hold those things on. I hate sewing.

Jojo: Every other girl will have all her patches on.

Me: Well, they have better moms than you.

Jojo: Um, you're a good mom. (Panicky eyes searching for example of my good mom-ness)

Me: Yes, I know. I just don't sew or recycle.

Jojo: Well, maybe Grammy June can help.

Me: Yes, undoubtedly.

The irony behind this is that my mom (Grammy June) can and probably will sew the patches on. She is great like that. But if you want to know the reason that I hate sewing, it is because my mom made me spend 3 weeks before summer camp (for 9 years) sewing little "Belongs to Christa" labels into every article of clothing I was taking to camp. When you are going somewhere for 8 weeks, that's a lot of socks.

This altercation with my daughter got me thinking about my original thesis of everything being easier for everyone else. Luckily, before I got swept into a pity party that only a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 7 marathon could undo, Perspective came knocking on my door. And I remembered that the snow is always easier to shovel on someone else's sidewalk.

Perspective came in the form of:

1. A hilarious text from my sister about her 3 year old son getting naked in preschool so that he could get the teacher's attention and wake the napping kids up.

2. A twenty minute period yesterday when my kids and I were all sitting on my bed reading our own books!

3. A love note from my husband. *Swoon*

4. The knucklehead who dropped my daughter off 45 minutes early after the Brownie outing and sped away without making sure that she got into our house safely. (Evidently, I wasn't the only one having a rough morning).

These all seem unrelated, but really they aren't. The point of all this perspective is that really, all of us, every day, are doing the best we can. Some days, we have a better shoveled sidewalk and some days, someone else does. I try to remember this in writing too. Some days the revision mountain seems huge and some days it seems easy to tackle.

It is amazing how much resentment, doubt, defeat, anger, negativity can be done away with if you remember that EVERYONE IS DOING THE BEST THAT THEY CAN. I understand now why writers don't want to review books or only review books favorably. They somehow understand how difficult the process is and they want to be FOR anyone who is trying to get through it. I am taking that perspective too.

Don't worry, I will still be snarky and sarcastic because it is in my nature but I will do so with the perspective that we are all doing the best we can and that for some people, that means getting ridiculous Twilight tattoos. (Photo "borrowed" from TwiTarded...read the blog, hilarious!)