The uglies

I had just stripped all the beds

again...

Wiped down every nook and cranky in the house.

Every stuffy that was loved, now smelled of Lysol.

It might have been ten degrees outside but that

didn't stop me from cracking open the windows.

Wearing my husbands sweatshirt.

Baggy yoga pants I had spent all morning scrubbing.

The upstairs.

Crabby I was....
Ugly really.

Sick of cleaning the house.

My running shoes lay in the corner of the

kitchen neglected.

I missed them.

And I just know they missed me.

But a run is not what I got..

Instead I got a call from the nurse the day

before,

telling me that one of my kids threw up in class.

Then later that night another one threw up.

Let me back up a bit......

See, this was week four!

Of someone being sick.
Influenza A, just showed up one day.
Croup had knocked on our door.
 Stomach bug hitched a ride home
with us.

Frankly I was sick... of all the uninvited guest.

All the cleaning,

finding cheerios spilled all over the floor.
Laundry up to my eyeballs.

The dog jumping for the hundredth time
on the couch
 on the clean sheets.

Having to text the ice-skating coach 

to let her know we couldn't come to practice
AGAIN.
 The piles of school work.

All my mind kept  thinking was...

 I can do all things through Christ that

strengthens me.

I kept pondering all things...

All things....

Like this bad attitude.
Being a total crab.
Grumbling.

Those things.

God gives me strength to 
rid myself of those things.

Twinge.

Is that a word?? I am pretty sure that is what I felt
inside. 

A twinge.

This little hope that 
I didn't have to be the cranky, crabby
grumbling mom.

God gives me strength to choose joy in hard times.

In the cleaning the sheets, run to the Dr again times. 

 To see the good in all things.

Like Lysol wipes.

Friends that pray for us.

A Dr. that squeezes us in
 when they hear 
the dreaded cough over the phone.
A sweet husband that brings home pizza for dinner.

So I never did get a run in...

In fact it has been a week but what I got 
was a better attitude, and God's strength to 
rid of myself of the uglies.