Shake it off

Some days…. some days just don’t go how we planned, from the minute we get up to the second we finally collapse into bed. What is that? Why is it everything seems to go wrong at once? The baby doesn’t sleep, the bigger kids do nothing but argue, you get tetchier by the minute…

THose are the days I drop the to-do list. When I stop trying to be super mum, doing twenty things at once and not stopping from mornign till night.

I pour an extra coffee, turn the music up loud and we dance. In the kitchen with our cheesiest dance moves. Shake off those feelings.

With six of us in the house most of the time, if one person is in a grump,, then it rubs off on the rest of us. I used to find that would throw our day off completely and then I’d be pissed.

I’ve learned to go with the flow a little more now. Of course, there are always some things that are non-negotiable – kids’ online lessons, or gymnastics classes to go to, a work deadline to meet, or my evening classes to attend. Everything else – we can drop.

When you are in a funk the best thing you can do is something completely different. Stop trying to carry on regardless, drop the to-do list, the mental plan of how your day will look and shake it off.

Get outside, go for a walk, or a bike ride. Bake a cake {and eat it}. Finger paint and embrace the mess. Have a board game afternoon. Curl up on the sofa and watch an old classic.

Tomorrow is a whole new day, and you can pick up the balls then. I’ve learned the hard way if you try to force it, it only makes it worse. They’ll be arguments galore, and maybe tears. Nothing will quite go right even if you do try to keep going which will only frustrate you more.

Stop fighting. GIve in. Take a breath. Shake it off.

Life will still be there tomorrow for to pick back up and try again.