Finding contentment in pork chops, laundry and lice

"How do you measure a year in the life?  Measure in love."
Rent


I text:  " I want pork chops for dinner. Do you guys like pork chops?" 
Greg:  "Sure- one of the kiddos may not eat it, but we'll work on that." 
Me:  "Ok- I have one with lice, so I need to do her hair and I have to finish up this laundry, but then I'll go to the store so we can have pork chops with roasted vegetables for dinner. See you soon :) " 

Its Sunday, my only day off  after a 55 hour work week and you can see from the above conversation that I am not sitting around watching episodes of "This is Us" and eating bon bons as I would have liked.  Quite frankly, at this moment, I'm pretty bitter about that.  My child's head is full of crawling lice for the 3rd time THIS school year, I have 5 loads of laundry to do (all of my sweaty workout clothes plus the sheets and blankets that have become a lice casualty), and going to the grocery store on a Sunday ranks right up there in fun with poking my eyes out.
So, I do what all people do when they are feeling overwhelmed:  I take a nap.
And awake to this text:  "Hey- I can go to the store if you want...."

And this is when I realize:  I'm a damn lucky girl.

I got to comb my daughters hair, listen to her stories, and watch her do an uninhibited dance while waiting for the 10 min lice meds to do their stuff.  Cool bonding time- that doesn't happen often.

I have clothes to work out in.  And we have sheets to sleep on.  Oh- and a washer AND a dryer. 

I got to go on a grocery store date with my best friend, and we grilled pork chops on the back porch, and drank wine, and talked.  A lot. 

We ate with the kids until our bellies were full, listened to music that soothed our soul, and slept in a bed of well being. 
Its the best I've felt in a very long time. 

The Dalai Lama once said "Happiness is not something ready made, it comes from your own actions." 
How cool to find contentment in pork chops, laundry and lice. 
Maybe there is hope for kale, work and wrinkles........






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