Yesterday wasn’t very happy. It started getting better after a lousy morning, but then the phone call came. “Do you want the good news or the bad news?” Marcel asked. It turned out there wasn’t any good news. Just a crapped out hot water tank spilling water all over the basement floor. And a big repair bill. Of course this comes only a week after Marcel finally got paid (after substitute teaching for a month and a half and after 5 and a half years of living off my income while he went to school) and we dared to hope that we could finally get ahead. Pffftt. There goes that pipe dream.
So I need to take a page from one of my favourite bedtime books, and think happy thoughts. Here goes…
– Nothing was seriously damaged by the water in the basement.
– Despite this big repair bill, I managed to get at least slightly caught up on some of the other bills hanging over our heads. AND I cleaned up that pesky stack of papers and bills and envelopes cluttering the top of the microwave.
– I have a great job that I still love after 4 years and that won’t likely be put in jeopardy by this economic downturn.
– The new indoor soccer facility is only 10 minutes from my house! Yay!
– I managed to rearrange my next business trip so I won’t miss Halloween after all. Plus I get to visit a part of the country I don’t get to very often.
– I’ve made my way back to the gym and I’m enjoying it again.
– Thanks to the gym, I was the only family member who got to have a warm shower this morning.
– My kids think I rock because I make Halloween costumes that make their friends jealous. There are few words more sweet than “you ROCK mom!”
– On Friday night I had the most lovely time with one of my newest friends – enjoying a Margaret Atwood lecture and ending the evening with some yummy dim sum.
– There’s a little girl who wakes up too often during the night (especially when she’s sick), but when she wakes up, it’s me she comes looking for. Me. I get to be her mom. I get to be the one to sooth her and cuddle her and chase away the monsters. Just for a little while until she grows up and learns to chase away her own monsters. For this moment, I don’t want to overlook how lucky that makes me. Especially since I don’t get to chase away her brother’s monsters.