The days are long, but time is short

We've had one of those days.  One of those days where Henni, Oliver, Charlie and I all awoke with grumpy pants and Attitude (note the capital (boldfaced) A).  I tried putting on a cheery front, tried singing my way through the morning, but I just couldn't shake my grumpy pants and the kids couldn't seem to shake theirs either.  And Charlie, he never took off his devil pants.  We all fed off each other's horrid attitudes and we dug ourselves a deep crabby hole we couldn't climb out of.

I recently finished The Happiness Project.  In the book Gretchen Rubin, the author, writes that "the days are long, but the time is short."  Throughout the day I kept repeating this - making it my mantra for the day.  While it did get me through the day, as I know it is so true, when Davis came home from work I told him I didn't think I could make it through another day like the one we had just (barely) survived.  Oliver, who was in the other room (and I thought couldn't hear us), walked in and said: "Mommy, you have to make it through another day. Mommy's don't get a day off."  Ah, so true.

I was unprepared going into this whole parenting thing about the lack of a day off.  Being a parent is a 24 hours job - 365 days a year (or 356 if it is a leap year).  This can be wonderfully rewarding or utterly exhausting and frustrating -- all at the same time.  Being a parent takes patience, stubbornness, laughter, creativity, and a dose of crazy.  But, I digress...

There truly are days that seem like years.  But Oliver, Henni and Charlie change in the blink of an eye. And, at the end of the day, there is peace.