Is There Anything Worse?

Today was just not the best day. It involved a lot of laundry, screaming and organizing. I don't handle any of those things well. I kept muttering to myself, "Is there anything worse than____? Fill in the blank: fighting, crying kids, scraping gum off of pillowcases and carpet, cleaning play-dough off the floor, trying to organize old school keepsakes and on and on. I just could not be happy about trying to do my boring little chores today.

Later on we had extra kids over after school. My adventurous daughter and her friend threw their backpacks in the door and took off outside. I finished making popcorn and went looking for them after a few minutes. They weren't outside. I looked inside but they were not in the house. I looked outside again. I got Grant and his friend to help me look. I started getting that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I looked in the garage, the van, the garden. I started getting frantic.

I called my neighbor who started looking. I got in the van and drove around. No sign of them. Panic set in. The pipeline is being put in by us and there is a lot more traffic around here than normal. Mike was gone at an away football game. I started thinking about calling the police. I didn't know what else to do.

As I was driving back in the driveway I saw them running across the newly cut hayfield. My fear and anxiety quickly turned to anger and just as quickly melted into relief. I gave them the crazed-mom routine about how worried I was about them and that they absolutely needed to tell me when they left the yard.

Usually in those situations you figure you will find them and they'll be okay. At the same time the worst case scenarios start racing through your head. But you know what I realized?

Is there anything worse? Yes. There are lots of things worse than doing my chores with cranky children. There are worse things than having a lot of laundry to do. There are worse things than a constantly messy house.

I'm thankful for the pity party perspective.