Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Discipline Spin

You spin me right ‘round, baby
Right ‘round like a record, baby
Right ‘round, ‘round, ‘round,
You spin me right ‘round, baby
Right ‘round like a record, baby
Right ‘round, ‘round, ‘round

Fabulous 80's tune but very applicable to this post. Maybe starting off posts with a song can be my new thing!

My friend Jen over at Sprite's Keeper decided to start a Spin Post to get different views on a topic and see where we go with it. This week the spin is Discipline. I think it is a fabulous idea and if you want to play, you can always join. At the very least this will get me to blog more.

I figured that I am going to take quite an unconventional approach to what is currently on my mind for discipline. I would like to say that even though this may come across as complaining or whining, that is not my intent. I will preface this with the fact that I am very blessed and have wonderful people in my life. I have a beautiful family, good job, nice house, and great friends. This post is no reflection on any one or any thing.

My spin on discipline is to have the discipline not to run away screaming. I have had a very trying week and I am still somewhat sane. I have the discipline to keep at it and not to just walk out of the front door (of my house or my work) and never look back. I know that there are things in my life that I have the ability to change and somethings that I have to accept. But, to discipline myself to not just scream at the top of my lungs and start running in the opposite direction, I believe, is commendable.

My week:

Work - I work with a bunch of 10 year old children some days. The drama and the complaining is enough to just throw up my hands and say "Really? Seriously, how old are you?" I actually had a coworker "A" bring in cookies for coworker "B"'s birthday. Coworker "C" refused to have a cookie because coworker "C" doesn't like coworker "A". I swear I am not even making that up. My other work problem is that I have a customer who is 12 hours ahead. So they work while most of us are sleeping but that means that if I need something immediately, I have to work at night. I worked this weekend on Sunday night and Monday morning. Issues affected my sleep and are still plaguing me this morning. It is going to be a long week even though it is already Tuesday and yesterday was Labor day. I won't even mention the meeting I had to go to last week that was from 7:30 PM to 2:30 AM. Yes, I said AM. I was home by 3:15 AM and yes, I had to go into work the next day. I was there by 9:30 AM. This just shows that I had the discipline to not run away screaming.

Abigail - Her smile can make me melt from across a room. Unfortunately, her crying grates on my last nerve because I hate to hear her cry or be upset. Wednesday afternoon I received a call from day care because Abby had a fever. That means I have to pick her up, deal with sick baby and work from home. (I hate when she is sick. I can't explain to her that everything is alright and it will be better soon. She doesn't like to sit in her car seat, she doesn't want to play much, nor eat. Drives me crazy) Thankfully I can work from home but that means I have to juggle more than usual (FYI, work does not stop if I am not there and if I take the day off, it is actually worse for me when I come back. Working from home usually means that I work off and on from 7 AM to about 9 PM). A fever means that I cannot bring her back to day care for at least 24 hours and she has to come back medication and symptom free. Well, there went my Thursday too. I was hoping that this would be just a 24 hour fever and I could take her back to day care and go to work to salvage what I could of my work week. But I was not that lucky. Thursday night the fever shot up and I decided to take her to the doctor Friday morning. Thankfully, she just had a cold. No ear infection, no strep, and her lungs were clear. Whew! On top of the cold, four teeth are coming in. Abby spent the better part of yesterday whining and crying. The only explanation was her teeth. She kept wanting to be picked up, cuddle for a minute then be put back down. I actually turned on Blue's Clues yesterday to see if she just needed some veg out time. Worked for about 10 minutes (we are not TV watchers with her) and then back to whining. I tried different parts of the house to play in, different toys, outside, inside, everything worked for 10 minutes and then I was just out of ideas. I even went outside to pull weeds to see if she wanted to play in the dirt. Nothing. She was just unhappy and again, nothing (including teething drops, cold drinks and ice cubes that she normally likes) worked. We eked our way to bed time and then I just collapsed on the couch. It is just good that I have the discipline to not run away screaming.

My husband - I love my husband. I often describe him as magical. He has a wonderfully infectious personality and I am constantly reminded how lucky I am to spend my life with him. Except for this week...hehehehehehe. I won't go into a big list of specifics because I know he reads this (and nothing he did was really that big of a deal) but sometimes I really think he just tries to irritate me. For example, I spent time cleaning the kitchen and the sink just to have him walk over and put a dirty dish in the sink. Seriously, you can't put it two feet to the right in the dishwasher? Or the vacuum that was used to clean up the dust from the baseboards is still sitting PLUGGED INTO THE WALL in the family room for over a week. Yes, I know you are going to use it again but it can be put away until that time. I love you, Josh. Really I do. My mother always told me to pick my battles and these aren't ones that I was willing to pick because in the great scheme of things, it isn't that big of a deal. But just know that it drives me crazy and thankfully I have the discipline to not run away screaming.

What is really sad is that last week I said I had a terrible week and won that argument between two friends who had bad weeks. Maybe it isn't the discipline to not run away screaming. Maybe it is the discipline not become a raging alcoholic. Just kidding.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Absolutely wonderful! And I agree, that sometimes our wonderful husbands just do things to make us want to throw things at them.
The fact that you have the discipline to face the world every day (and a demanding job) is something to be admired! You're linked!

Anonymous said...

Honey - you do have discipline - I would have screamed or ended up in the shower sobbing at a week like that (and that is not the hormones talking! LOL)

HeatherPride said...

Oh yes, all of those things can make a woman crazy. I HATE workplace drama (one of the reasons I'm kind of glad to work with a bunch of men) and yes, those little things around the house do seem to get bigger after a while. I once heard a marital counselor talk about how more people will end up getting divorced over something like a spouse who never puts the lid on the toothpaste than who will end up getting divorced over something "big". Not that any of us are getting divorced! She was just trying to demonstrate how those "little things" can blow up on you!