When nothing seems to go right...

I don't even know where to begin...

The craziness of the weekend began Friday, after a long drive to and from the vet for our new pup, Lulu, that we rescued a couple weeks ago (not the senior dog we were planning and looking for, but a puppy who is not potty trained!). If I hadn't had a 4 month break of Nya being out of diapers, I couldn't imagine where my sanity would be with both a puppy and toddler learning the boundaries of where to pee and poop.

When we got home, Nya and I hoped in the car (it only gets driven around the block once every other week while Jamie's gone), along with both dogs, and set out for our biweekly spin around the block.

Only to discover the car wouldn't start. The battery was completely dead.

Oh well.

The next morning we awoke to weather in the 20's. It was TWENTY SOMETHING degrees... in the south... in the middle of November! I decided we would take the day easy after our crazy week of running around. All was going well, until we sat down for dinner...

Our sensitive smoke alarms that Jamie had "fixed" started going off. The sharp shrilling wail of the siren pierced my ear drums as I scurried to get everything under control.

Lulu was running through the house completely terrified. Lexi was trying to round everyone up to get outside. And Nya was dashing through the house in her underwear shouting, "What is that? What's going on?" Over. And over. And over.

I managed to reset the smoke detectors. The windows were open and the fans were on. The bloodcurdling wail was silent for the moment.

Five minutes later they begin to wail again. Lulu peed all over the floor, and Nya, still in just her underwear, shouting "What's going on?!"followed behind me as I ran upstairs, taking all five smoke detectors out of the ceiling.

But they didn't stop!

I disconnected all the wires and they were STILL going off. In my hands! I just wanted the noise to stop!

I opened them up, ripped out the batteries out, and those suckers were still shrieking! More of a dying shriek than the initial piercing, but what the heck?!

I threw the batteries in a zip lock bag, the disengaged and empty smoke detectors in another bag, and ran them out to the garage. It crossed my mind to throw them in the garbage, but I had a flash back to a Friends episode where Phoebe had the same problem. Probably not a good idea to fully dump them. I instead hid them as far away as I could, praying they wouldn't come back to life anytime soon.

Now I was proud of myself. I had done it! Those suckers were not going to bother us anymore!

Everyone came back inside, we finished our meal, and went about our night.

....

Sunday morning came too early, and Lexi was up at 6 ready to go outside and play. All I wish for is ONE morning to sleep in. Just one.

I crawled back into bed for a bit before getting Nya. It was still freezing, but not as cold as the day before. I had planned on baking most of the day to restock some of our food in the freezer. Nya loves helping me in the kitchen so I thought it was a perfect way to spend this cold Sunday.

First, Nya managed to climb up onto the counter, reach into the spice cabinet and pull my large container of Italian Seasoning off the shelf.... ALL over the floor.

Stay calm, I told myself as Nya quickly apologized.

On to the next task...Nya was helping me stir the flour and cacao for our chocolate doughnuts. She managed to stir it right out of the bowl and all over the island, cabinets, and floor.

"I'm sorry!" she cried.

Next, we began making almond butter bars. Somehow Nya spilled an entire cup of freshly made date sugar all over the floor.

"I'm sorry!"

Why is this happening?!?!

The last thing to spill was the warm cashew milk we just finished making. Down the counter, over the cabinets, onto the floor.

My Vitamix stopped working and I nearly broke my food processor getting the pieces to attach after 15 minutes of fussing with it.

At every turn, it seemed something was going wrong. I had moments where I wanted to scream and throw everything through the window, and moments where I couldn't help but laugh. Everything was so incredibly ridiculous. How could this many things go wrong???

So we ended our day by pulling out the Christmas tree and putting it up while we listened to Christmas music. And Lulu didn't pee in the house!

As crazy as this weekend was, it is so important to me how I react in these situations now that I have a child. No matter how clumsy Nya may be, or how much easier it would be if I didn't let her help, that's not what life is about. Nya's just an innocent being who is curious and eager to help, and she is always watching and learning from me.

These situations remind me to take a step back, a deep breath, and relax. The car will start again once it's jumped. The smoke detectors are just sensitive and will be fixed when Jamie gets home. And Nya is not intending to harm.

These are just accidents, and lessons in life. I don't want to make a big deal out of things that happen, because I don't want Nya becoming fearful of making mistakes, or afraid of running into roadblocks. I want her to always be confident to try new things and realize everything can be fixed or worked through with patience....

And a little bit of laughter.

But I really, really couldn't wait for bedtime!

To connect with others in this crazy journey of life, discover new parenting ideas & fun DIY projects, learn about holistic remedies, & find whole food plant based recipes, please visit our Facebook page Loving Green at Loving Green FB.