We brought the kids to Toys R Us on Saturday.  One of them got a toy for Christmas that needed to be exchanged and a few others had some money burning a hole in their pockets.  It took us much longer than I preferred to get out the door.  I don’t think it should take us 20 minutes to get ready to go but this time it did.  It didn’t help that when we were 5 minutes into our trip we discovered that the toy we needed to exchange was left at home so we had to go back and get it.

I was frustrated and upset.  I had a plan and now it was delayed.

This isn’t anything new for me.  Lately I feel like I live most of my life upset or annoyed.  I let the small annoyances in life linger and fester inside of me.

As I was driving to the toy store I was thinking about my attitude and the fact that it really wasn’t helping the situation.  Is it really worth being so angry about something so meaningless?  The fact that we were a half hour later than I hoped didn’t make any earth shattering ripples in our day but the way I treated my kids because of it definitely could.  We were going to the toy store whether I liked it or not.  I could either get over myself and let the kids have their fun and maybe enjoy myself too, or I could be ornery, frustrated and snippy at them the whole time which wouldn’t be fun for anyone.

I chose to get over myself.  I let the boys look at Lego sets for as long as they wanted.  I even got crazy and let Baby Girl stay out of the cart.  She wandered around the store, pulled everything off the shelf, showed it to me, then said, “I buy it.”  All with her hair in bows that she did herself.

How can that not make you happy?

In the end, it was a successful trip. It wasn’t some grand memory that the kids will remember when they’re old.  It was simply a trip to the store where toys and candy were acquired.  One tiny step on the ladder of building a happy childhood for these kids I love so much and want the best for.  But it was definitely a success for me.  I showed myself that I can let go of those annoyances and let myself enjoy the moment even if everything hasn’t gone as planned.

And that is a something I will definitely use again because really, how often does life go as planned?