this week's ride

It's been quite a week.  Quite. A. Week.

The better part of my time has been spent squinting through swollen eyes rendering me a close cousin to Rocky Balboa.  But without his fighting spirit.

By Tuesday evening I was in tears while making dinner.  I was going to call someone.  But what could I say?  That I'm crying over laundry?  That I'm scrounging a dinner because we had not yet managed our weekly grocery shopping?  That my face resembled a boxer losing a fight because somehow I had forgotten over the winter that my tree allergies flare up each spring?  That I don't know how I could even possibly forget something like that?

Later in the week, as I went to the elementary school to pick up my sons, I opened the back of the minivan and discovered a wide open space where the stroller should be. I stood there staring, trying to make sense of what I saw.  Slowly it came to me that I must have left it in the church parking lot from a stop earlier in the day.  In. The. Parking. Lot. Twenty. Minutes. Away.

So that explains why I was walking in my sons' school with Pal strapped to my back in the hiking pack.  Funny enough he loved it.  And I received oohs and ahhs from the teachers.  One very generous teacher gushing that "no wonder you look so great, you are super-mom to take four kids hiking, in the snow no less, and you bring me homemade bread." I assured her I am not super-mom. But thank you.  Oh so very much. 

As it turns out I'm not the first mom to forget her stroller in that church parking lot.  Really.  And that I gave the staff a good chuckle.  I'll take that.

Just like I will take the afternoon I spent having coffee with a friend.  After the tears Tuesday night I invited her to come over Wednesday afternoon.  It gave me that boost needed to do a quick tidy up, put the sugar in the wedding present crystal sugar bowl, and have cookie batter ready for fresh-baked cookies as we connected over coffee and kids. She brought me a goodie bag to combat the swollen face.  Such goodie goodness from the generous women I know.

Like another friend that helped me laugh my way to the weekend.  She and I spent Thursday evening in Starbucks, and like true friends should, we quickly made our way to sharing a depth of understanding of each other, filled with compassion and free of judgement.  

Ah, just what I needed.  Similar to the special package I received in the mail from a dear blogging friend.  (More of which you'll see later.) And the unexpected delivery of homemade caramel corn from a former colleague.  How could she have known it's sugary yumminess was exactly what I needed at that minute of my day, of my week?

My eyes are still a bit swollen.  But this morning I took a solo hike breathing cool fresh air, leaving my tracks in the dusting of snow among those very trees that are causing some discomfort.  

I thanked the trees for their oxygen, forgave them for their angst.