Getting Out the Door

“I am still determined to be cheerful and to be happy in
whatever situation I may be, for I have also learnt from experience that the
greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances; we carry the seeds of the one, or the other about with us, in our minds, wherever we go.” Martha Washington

I don’t want to be like this every time we leave to go on a trip.

As I shared before, I'm not the most patient person. My patience is tested daily, but none more so than when we are trying to leave the house. It's even worse on days we are leaving to go on a trip.

I tell myself to remain calm in the midst of the chaos. I know the morning will be hectic and frenzied, much like every other morning when you hit the ground running with two kids. I somehow convince myself the night before we leave that I can have that go-with-the-flow personality I long for.

Then the morning of the trip comes, and I feel my blood beginning to boil as the easiness I wish for turns into a three-hour attempt to just get into the car.

My husband gets all the blame and wrath for our slow progress. I know the man is doing as much as he can. I know he is willing to do anything I ask to make things move along smoothly.

That doesn’t seem to stop me, though.

“I don’t understand why you didn’t pack the car last night?” “I can’t believe you packed that in the car already when you should know we need to use it before we leave.” “Why aren’t his shoes on?” “You know her diaper has to be changed before we leave. Do I have to do everything?”

It’s not a pretty sight.

So much of the tone of a day, let alone a trip, is set by the mother. I know that I have the power to stop this negative cycle. So why do I always revert to the same frantic notions each time a trip begins?

I should avow to stop the nonsense. I should avow to stop criticizing my husband; this man who works so hard to help me stay calm and our children cared for. I should avow to stop fretting about getting out the door at the exact time I had planned. I should avow to help my children see how to be content in any and all situations. I should avow, like Martha Washington,
to be cheerful no matter what the circumstances and to refuse to make myself
and those I love miserable.

We’ll see how it goes our next trip.