Awesome is as Awesome Does

 

I was awesome yesterday. I exercised. I put laundry through (I might even fold it and put it away eventually). I cuddled kids and only yelled at them when they REALLY deserved it (like when the four-year-old drop kicked the two-year-old). Dinner was mostly real food and everybody was bathed before bed. I read stories out loud and did funny voices. I skipped my the-kids-are-in-bed-phew-where's-my-snackage? moment and went to bed with the smug feeling that can only come from resisting the Toblerone bar in the pantry.

And I didn't write any horridly long sentences with flagrant overuse of caps lock or hyphens in. Yup.

Today, I decided to be awesome again. It lasted, mmm, about four hours. And then I ate one thousand calories in one sitting, threw myself a pity party, and watched a truly horrible sitcom on Netflix while the little ones napped.

VanderVision Tip of the Day: Awesomeness CAN happen by accident, but more commonly it happens by choice(s).

It amazes me that I can be so THOROUGHLY awesome one moment, and so wretched the next. Seriously, I think I have mental whiplash or something. The neck of my brain hurts. For real.

And the door flew open at 2:50pm and my nine-year-old declared that she was SO angry with her little sister. Because she stole a pencil. From SCHOOL. And it was a very, VERY bad thing to do. My initial reaction was somewhere between gritted teeth and a sigh, but I decided to be awesome and patient, and speak in one of those softly-sweet mommy voices that isn't unlike the voice people use to talk people down off of ledges.

Then I decided to be MORE awesome and I had a super long talk with a tearful daughter about her struggles at school. I was empathetic, patient, insightful, helpful. PURE AWESOMENESS. And I don't mind admitting I don't have that in me every moment of every day. Sometimes the awesomeness bill arrives in the form of a demanding child and I've got to confess to being broke. Sorry kiddo, Mommy used up her awesomeness already. Try again tomorrow.

Sometimes I catch myself spending my awesomeness on stupid stuff. Once upon a time ago it was Tetris. I haven't let myself play Tetris in a long, long time. I am awesome at this game. I was even on the world leaderboard at one time, that's how fast these fingers of mine can fly. But it sucks the awesome right out of me and leaves me bankrupt. I can't afford it. I need to save up for more important things. Like her (picture of one of my daughters that I'm too lazy to upload right now), and her (ditto), and her (ditto), and her (ditto), and him (picture of Neil), and them (group shot of all my family and friends, which doesn't exist, but how cool would it be if it did?).

Today, I'm going to spend my awesomeness on words, both spoken and written. Because words don't just give life to stories, they give life to LIFE. What are you spending your awesomeness on?