Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Don't Cry Over Spilled Freeze Pops

Oh how I love perfection! In everything I think, say and do, I am always shooting for it, but sometimes, too many times, I fall way short.

I was given some experiences to practice the other day that were just hilarious in retrospect, so I wanted to share.

Alyssa asked if she could open the box of Freeze-Pops I bought that day. She has been bugging me to buy them all summer, and, I have been trying to let her do more things on her own, so I handed her a pair of scissors to open the box.

I supervised, of course, but before I could stop her, she stabbed the top of the box with the scissors. She didn't know any better, and has probably seen me open boxes this way before ... but that is not the tactic I would use with a box of 100 tubes of spill-able, sticky, staining liquid!

So, I showed her the right way to open the box, which did not really need scissors, by the way (my bad). Then we peeked inside to assess the damage. Luckily, there was only one pop that was leaking. No biggie, so I took that one to the sink and asked her to put the rest in the freezer.

For some reason, she thought she needed to separate the pops before putting them in the freezer, and as she pulled them apart, one ripped right in the middle. Spill-able, sticky, staining, red liquid shot everywhere as I carried the carnage over to the sink to dispose of it! And that is when I lost it. I yelled out her name in a frustrated, blaming tone, as if it was her fault.

It was not her fault. I'm the one who decided it would be wise to carry the darn thing over to the sink, not her. She didn't do anything wrong by tearing them apart, that's what she thought she was supposed to do. She ran up to her room crying. Who could blame her.

After I cleaned up the mess, I went up to her room, knocked on her door, got down on my knees to her level and said, "I am so sorry for yelling at you. That was not your fault. You did nothing wrong. Can you forgive me?" Thankfully, she did!

This story would be finished if that was the end of the excitement for that day, but alas, it was not. The next mess occurred just two hours later as we were leaving for a potluck dinner at church. We had baked some really cool cupcakes with filling in the middle.

As we were leaving, Alyssa volunteered to put them in the car. I was happy to let her help. She took the container from me, but could not fit it between the seats, so she tipped it sideways to make it fit! Logical, right? Well, not if what is in the container is frosted cupcakes!!!

"Nooooooo," I yelled out! At that moment, I remembered the lesson I learned earlier, so I asked her to hand me the container, and I brought it back inside to the kitchen table to survey the damage.

My first reaction, was, "Great. They're toast." But after a deep breath and a second look, I realized I could salvage the cupcakes if I re-frosted the tops and pulled the paper wrappers off the bottoms (because they were now covered in frosting).

Nobody followed me inside the house to see what was happening (they were probably afraid of my reaction), so I went back out to the car and told them to come back in while I repaired the damage, because it was a scorching 94 degrees outside.

Alyssa stood next to me while I doctored them up. I could tell she was waiting to see if I was going to get angry, so I said, "Boy are we having a wacky day, or what?" She laughed and started making jokes of her own.

As an added bonus, my dad was there, so he helped me clean up the mess and we were back on our way out the door in no time.

For the record, the cupcakes turned out fabulous! And hopefully I'm well on my way to learning not to cry (or yell) over spilled things!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Fake on Facebook?

This topic has been on my mind for a little while, so I just wanted to take a quick moment to address it.

Since Facebook has become popular, there have been many accusations of people being "fake" and only posting good news on their status updates. I even saw a t-shirt at Walt Disney World making reference to this. While I'm certain there are people out there who do that, I would like to offer another possibility.

Maybe some people just prefer to be positive. Personally, I am intentional about posting positive information and thoughts on Facebook. Not to be fake, but because I believe in the Law of Attraction, which says, "what you think about is what you bring about."

That means, if your mind is negative and full of complaints, then you are going to receive more of that. But if your mindset is positive and full of gratitude, you will receive more of that. 

I don't want to go on Facebook and spread negativity around. And that is not what I want to read on Facebook. I don't want to be dragged down by negative energy. 

I'm not saying it's never OK to complain on Facebook. But if we find that most of our posts are complaints, we might want to take a look at that. Yes, there are always challenges in life, but what really matters is how you choose to look at them. I choose to see the glass half-full. I choose to see the silver lining. How about you?