Roll With It {Mindful Mothering Mondays}

It's been an "off" couple of weeks in our house.  First, Moose came home from school with a random fever (that, thankfully, never became more).  Just as we were fully recovered, I got bitten by a brown recluse spider (that, thankfully, never necrotized).  Add to that a big change in a friend's schedule (with temporary loss of weekly playdate) and the end of gymnastics, and our routine is really off.

I am so Type A (I think the hubby has used "rigid" more than once in our ten years of marriage . . ).  I openly admit that I don't do great with disruptions to the Force.  And here I am, mothering a very spirited child who thrives on predictability!

But, as Lydia put it so poignantly in her Mindful Mothering Monday post last week:

The way that I approach my life is a lesson plan for my children in how to live.  What am I really telling my children?

I want Moose to be more adaptable than his mommy.

I want him to move from "uh-oh" to "it's ok" to "what next?" much faster than I do!

And it's not just enough to give him the words.  Kids, I am learning, are like animals - they smell fear and the feel the disconnect between our words and our actions.  I need to believe it, too!

The photo in this post looks like nothing more than a kiddo playing with some dirt, rocks and a truck at the park, but it are so much more.  It is a testament to an exercise in rolling with it.  I took this photo of Moose playing shortly after my spider bite (reeling from dizziness, I got us from the grocery store, where it happened, to the park; I was waiting for my symptoms to subside so we could get the rest of the way home).

The random car is not ours. ("Honey, don't touch that, we don't know who it belongs to."  "Ok, you can play with that, but we'll need to leave it here in case the friend who lost it comes back to look for it.")

But the random car is a metaphor for how I am trying to change the way I look at breaks in routine and spontaneity - as opportunities to explore and play and try something new or different.  We may need some hand sanitizer later, but it's not the end of the world.

Once again, so thankful to Lydia for hosting this weekly round-up of encouragement for moms!