Remember that old song? “Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God has done”?

I’m doing that tonight. I’m HAVING to do that tonight.

Today was just a lousy day. Carson and I had several knock-down-drag-out arguments. OK, no one literally got knocked down, but he literally got dragged to his room twice and I had to chase him up the play structure at the park and drag him to the car later in the day. Also, during painting time, Carson freaked out when I freaked out that he was wiping his paint-covered hands all over his shorts and the easel. He promptly RAN through the house, escaping my grasp by about 3 inches, and touching his paint-covered hands on every possible surface he could. While dealing with that, Sydney found a NON-WASHABLE marker and decorated her new pants and her body. After dealing with THAT, I found Carson splashing in the toilet like a baby in a sinkbath. No, the toilet was NOT clean. (But it was just pee and TP, no poo.) He just manages to find every. Last. Button. and pushandpushandpushandpushandpush.

My allergies have hit 100 mph, and I’m sneezing & sniffing, snot literally dripping so fast out of my nose that some landed on Sydney while I was changing her diaper, and I want to claw my itchy, red eyes out of my congested head. I stubbed my toe so hard it bled. I got a paper cut on a piece of junk mail and it bled. And on TOP of that, my jumbalaya attempt for dinner did horrible, painful, unspeakable things to my stomach.

So, what’s a girl to do? I’ll tell you. I’m counting my blessings. One by one. My wise friend Kristi once told me she finds peace in going into her children’s rooms when they are asleep and praying for them. I have adopted this practice and it does give me peace and usually brings me to tears of humility and unspeakable gratitude. I prayed over these challenging little blessings, I read my own blog from last week about unthinkable tragedy, I looked at pictures of healthy baby Wyatt, I grabbed a handful of chocolate chips from my cupboards full of food, I took a shower in a home that we own and can pay for each month with a job my husband loves.

And I will sleep peacefully (and hard) tonight.

And wake up tomorrow and do it all over again.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you, thank you, thank you.