In which I whine a little. Maybe a lot...

Yesterday and today have been rough. Not because of one thing, but because of what feels like a few dozen little things that have been happening over the the course of the last few days.

Wednesday: The great egg distaster. Boo.

Thursday: Numerous milk spills. Boo.
Brooke fighting me when I try to get her out of the car, put pants on her, make her take a nap. Boo.
The new tires came for the car came. Yay!
Brooke didn't take a nap, so no break. Boo.
I picked a gallon of home-grown strawberries. Yay!
But then the instructions in the pectin package were wrong and the double batch of jam I made didn't turn out. Boo. (fyi, some of the packages of sure-jell still have the wrong instructions. The right ones are online, plus a recipe to fix the un-gelled jam.).
I fixed the jam. Yay!
My kitchen was a disaster. Boo.

Friday: The front left tire was flat. Boo.
I filled the tire. Go me.
I got the kids all ready in the car and loaded the tires to get them put on at Les Schwab and the battery was dead. Boo.
I called Jeremy to walk me through using the battery charger and I'm incompetent. Boo.
Jeremy came home and jumped the car. Yay!
I take the car for a drive to charge the battery and realize that I'm driving on the highway with a tire that has a leak. Boo.
We go to Les Scwab and Brooke actually fell asleep and there is an hour wait. We went home.

In between all this is Brooke repeatedly moving the couch to the entertainment center and grabbing DVDs and taking them out of the case and trying to ruin them, Tayvin begging to play video games, Brooke shrieking as high as her little voice goes because Tayvin thinks it's hilarious, trying to keep the chicken's watered, Tayvin spilling milk all over three separate time, including on a rug that I then had to wash, wanting to weed the garden but unable to b/c Brooke wanders in and out of the house and I can't leave her alone for 2 seconds.

Now I understand that none of this is really a huge deal. But all of it happening at once and adding so many little things that I have to get done is driving me nuts. And not just a frustrated kind of nuts, but a crawl into a hole and don't come out kind of nuts.

But.

I have been taking deep breaths. Crying a little. Being thankful that the kids and I aren't sick. Thankful that Jeremy has had a good week at work and has been really cheerful and helpful all week. Eating lemon drops. They are delicious. Eating smores dip. Also delicious. I made twelve pints of amazing jam and they look beautiful. I got to help and friend and watch one of her kids so she could pack. My roses are getting new growth and are going to look amazing next year. My hydrangeas are getting new growth too and filling out. The garden is growing and the corn came up. The view from my backyard is amazing. My daylily has tons of blooms this year. The chickens have laid a dozen eggs already. The books I had on hold arrived at the library. We have ice cream.

Lots of things to be thankful for = Life is better than you think.