Wheat fields.

Today started out rough. It was one of those days where the kids and I weren't clicking; I was having a hard time getting through to them. After a handful of timeouts and a 45 minute toy-picking-up standoff I had officially lost it. I yelled, I cried, things as a parent I try really hard to never do in front of my kids. I was sad, they were sad and it was only 10 am. I was already feeling like this day might be a loss. No fun was going to be had and we just needed to endure and get through it. I hate those kind of days. Such a waste. And a wasted day is truly a tragedy in my book. As tired and defeated as I already felt I loaded the kids in the car and we headed to Starbucks. Maybe a quiet drive and a warm treat would help to reset us all.

Roughly five miles of the stretch of road home dons the most amazing rolling wheat fields. Last week when Sullivan got his haircut he told me, 'Mama, I didn't want to get my haircut, I want that hair back now.' I told him that he was about to start preschool and we needed to get his haircut so that he was all ready for his big day. He looked out the window as we drove past the hills and said, 'Mama, I don't want to go to school, I just want to play in the wheat fields.' At the time I thought, 'I hear you kid!' But for some reason it didn't occur to me to actually stop. Today as we neared that stretch of road I pulled onto the first farm road. I was still reeling from the morning we'd had but at that moment I was determined. Determined not to let a bad day win. There are so many things in life that we can't control but this isn't one of them and I was not going to let this day get the better of me. I try to make a conscious effort to create as many experiences, have as much fun and enjoy every moment as much as possible with my children. On good days it comes naturally, everyone is happy and it's almost a given. On hard days it is really difficult to push all the way back over to the good and easy side. So much more effort, patience and determination. As we unloaded from the car I knew it was exactly what we all needed. They examined the wheat, ran down the country road, laughed and screamed and then almost out of nowhere two enormous combines started heading our way. We didn't appear to be in the way since they weren't using the road so we sat in the car and waited and wouldn't you know they drove right next to the car, the sweet farmers waved at our kiddos and we got to watch as they began harvesting their crops. The kids were so thrilled and I realized at that moment that if I had let this morning get the better of me we all would have missed out on such an amazing experience. As we drove home we saw a handful more combines all harvesting their fields. The next time we head to town the wheat will be gone but we will know that we stopped and enjoyed the very small but very significant joys of this amazing little life.