The Characters that Updated my Character.

I'm a Facebook junkie. I'll totally and freely admit that. There are times when my status updates are Pollyanna-ish in nature...and there are times when they are not. Today was almost one of the latter.

My husband took the girls out this morning and left the kitchen and family room in disarray. I was pretty resentful about it as I picked up their messes, and I mentally worked on my status update. It was something along the lines of: Ren and the girls trashed the house AGAIN and left it for me to clean. Ugh!  Not necessarily a brilliant missive, but it was in its early developmental phase.

I finished cleaning, had some coffee, read the paper and jumped in the shower. It was there that I realized I hadn't posted my status update yet. And the ugly nature of my intended status update hit me: I was whining.  And even worse, I was complaining about the blessings in my life.

I reflected on this for quite some time. What did it really mean, that I had to pick up after them again? I broke it down piece by piece. The dirty dishes? They showed we had food to eat. Dirty jammies and unmade beds? We have clothes to wear and a house to sleep in. Toys and books on the family room floor? Our girls have no material wants. TV and lights on throughout the house? Our utility bills are paid. The fact that they left at all? We have safe cars for them to drive/ride in.

And then I flipped it on myself. I know lots of women who have deadbeat baby daddies who wouldn't even take their kids out for a morning. Two of my friends lost parents this week and another celebrated the anniversary of her mother's death. I have another friend who has a child going through testing for potentially serious health issues. Someone else just lost a job and another friend of a friend lost her home in a fire.

I bet any one of those people would swap their current agonies for a day in my house.

Which is not to say we don't have real issues in our home (we do) and it's not to say we should always compare ourselves to other people (we shouldn't). But at the same time, why should I gripe about these trivial annoyances? Why should THEY be the message I put out there? Sure, we all need to get stuff off our chests from time to time, but is this the right time to air this dirty laundry? Who benefits from what I'm about to say or do? I think those are questions more of us need to ask ourselves more often.

Am I still ticked I had to clean up their messes? Absolutely. It's just common courtesy to pick up before running out the door. But would I trade my family and all our "problems"? Not for a lifetime supply of pumpkin pie Blizzards. And really, the message to all of this is that my husband took his daughters out for a day at the park and to lunch so I could get some downtime and go hang out with my friends. This is the status update I ran with:

Thanks to Ren for running around with the girls this morning! Off to get ready for a fun afternoon with some girlfriends and good food. Enjoy your day, everyone!