"When you chop the carrots, chop the carrots"

We recovered from our stomach virus, stumbled back into the kitchen, timidly ate crackers, and all had extremely emotional weeks.  Colt had dental work that made him lose his mind, Lane experienced some beautiful and crazy anger that made me lose my mind, and we all looked longingly outside the windows towards something to calm us all down.  We were met with serious heat and a mosquito-ridden back yard that forced us back inside.

But the thing that solves the problems will always only be ourselves..  When Lane is mad and wants to externalize his anger (hit, scream, scratch) the only thing I can do is help him learn to calm down on the inside.  When I'm frustrated, it's never going to make the inside better when I'm trying to fix everything on the outside.  I have to choose to calm my own mind down.  Yelling may seem like it makes us feel better sometimes, but it's like tylenol - a symptom killer instead of a root-problem solver.

On Thursday, after another long day of falling into bed with heavy limbs and exhausted eyes, I chose to have a better couple days.  The way I did it?  I started being where I was.  If I was working, I wasn't also reading to Lane, going to the grocery store, balancing a checkbook, prepping dinner.  If I was taking a shower, I made my mind focus on the soap and water and the way washing my hair felt.  I tried to stop my multitasking MAYHEM that drives me batty, and it really made me feel better.

I also put on a swirly dress and danced around my house for an entire hour.  That made me feel better too.