Fly Strips and Milk

After a crazy Monday morning trying to get the kids out the door on time and get myself to the school where I was to volunteer, I felt like my head was spinning. I still had to make it to the store to pick up a couple items and I chanted the list in my head like a mantra….fly strips ( I seem to have a fruit fly problem in the kitchen!) and milk….fly strips and milk....fly strips and milk. On chaotic days like this one, I often find myself asking “Is this all there is? Fly strips and milk?!“ I keep imagining that I am just doing these mundane tasks until my real life starts. I am one of those moms who doesn’t work. I manage the kid’s schedules and activities, do all the grocery shopping and cooking, do all the laundry, all the cleaning, budget and bills, find time to volunteer several days a week at the kids’ school and yet somehow that isn’t considered working? And I find myself left with fly strips and milk! Then one day I was talking with a friend who has been extremely ill for over a year. I went to sit and visit with her and she said she felt so bad that all she did was lay in her home hospital bed and sleep all day. She couldn’t do even the most basic tasks like cook for her family or get the laundry done. And she said she missed those day to day tasks, the tasks that make up everyday life.

Later, I was reminded of something I hear often when I volunteer to help with art projects at the school. I hear the teachers commenting on how “it’s not the product, it’s the process.” Meaning it doesn’t matter how the project turns out as much as what you experienced through the process. It doesn’t have to be a perfect outcome, because it’s more about the journey itself. I am guessing that applies to life as well. While it’s sometimes a revelation to me that anyone would consider laundry to be paradise, it’s something to consider, nonetheless. Dryers breaking down and phones ringing off the hook and kids screaming and dogs barking…those are sometimes the things that make up the journey. And while hectic and mind boggling, they are most likely the things I would miss the most in the end. Things like fly strips and milk.

Quote of the Day- "The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes." -Charles R. Swindoll

FYI-Fly strips DO work for fruit fly problems! Hooray!!