I was working from home when suddenly, the power went out. I was not happy. This has already happened to us more times this year than I think it has in the whole time we've been married. And, I had tons to do at work before the end of the year and around the house before a trip to Ohio! So, after I called the power company and immediately reported it, I called Mike to complain. He wisely said, "There's nothing you can do about it at home except sit around and be mad. Why don't you take Jovie to the playground?" He was right, of course. After running through a million excuses in my head, I realized that there was very little I could do at home at the moment except fume.
So, I dealt with the obligatory guilt. After all, I was supposed to be working and wasn't I a bad employee for not working, even under circumstances out of my control? Shouldn't I at least try to turn myself into a power company employee and figure out where the outage was and how to fix it? Or perhaps call the power company every five minutes until they sent every employee within a fifty mile radius out there to fix my power because I was annoying enough. Or was there some way I could take Jovie to Starbucks with me while I worked? I mean, if I was a good enough Mom, I could figure out how to make my toddler sit quietly next to me for a couple hours while I waded through email. Or maybe I could call a friend and have her watch Jovie while I went to Starbucks alone - oh wait, all of my friends that are close by were working or had other commitments. So I should find any friend who can take her for a couple hours, no matter how far away, or how inconvenient it would be for them to have an extra toddler at the last minute, right? While these things may sound crazy to a rational human being, a person like me really does run through all those scenarios in my head. I spent twenty minutes wrestling with myself to figure out some way to work, so that I could feel like a productive employee. Never mind that I had been working from before six am until past eleven pm for the last few nights. If I take a couple hours of a break because I have no internet, I am a slacker. Hmmm. Maybe today, I needed to take breath and a moment just to be with Jovie with no other distractions or agenda. So, taking my husband's sage advice, I decided to accept the gift of no power, and took my daughter outside on a pretty December day.
And man, am I glad I did.
Somehow over the last couple months, Jovie has turned into a real toddler, with little trace of baby left (the only thing left with that "baby" feeling is her night-time bottle.) I mean, we knew she was technically a toddler, but she still used to have some baby mannerisms. But somewhere along the way, those have fallen away. And it showed on the playground today. We went to the little one right by our house, and we were alone there - just Jovie and all that fun playground equipment! For thirty minutes, she toddled around, squealing, climbing, going down the slide, getting dirty, and just having a generally great time. And I totally and thoroughly enjoyed watching her and taking lots of pictures and video!
So, I dealt with the obligatory guilt. After all, I was supposed to be working and wasn't I a bad employee for not working, even under circumstances out of my control? Shouldn't I at least try to turn myself into a power company employee and figure out where the outage was and how to fix it? Or perhaps call the power company every five minutes until they sent every employee within a fifty mile radius out there to fix my power because I was annoying enough. Or was there some way I could take Jovie to Starbucks with me while I worked? I mean, if I was a good enough Mom, I could figure out how to make my toddler sit quietly next to me for a couple hours while I waded through email. Or maybe I could call a friend and have her watch Jovie while I went to Starbucks alone - oh wait, all of my friends that are close by were working or had other commitments. So I should find any friend who can take her for a couple hours, no matter how far away, or how inconvenient it would be for them to have an extra toddler at the last minute, right? While these things may sound crazy to a rational human being, a person like me really does run through all those scenarios in my head. I spent twenty minutes wrestling with myself to figure out some way to work, so that I could feel like a productive employee. Never mind that I had been working from before six am until past eleven pm for the last few nights. If I take a couple hours of a break because I have no internet, I am a slacker. Hmmm. Maybe today, I needed to take breath and a moment just to be with Jovie with no other distractions or agenda. So, taking my husband's sage advice, I decided to accept the gift of no power, and took my daughter outside on a pretty December day.
And man, am I glad I did.
Somehow over the last couple months, Jovie has turned into a real toddler, with little trace of baby left (the only thing left with that "baby" feeling is her night-time bottle.) I mean, we knew she was technically a toddler, but she still used to have some baby mannerisms. But somewhere along the way, those have fallen away. And it showed on the playground today. We went to the little one right by our house, and we were alone there - just Jovie and all that fun playground equipment! For thirty minutes, she toddled around, squealing, climbing, going down the slide, getting dirty, and just having a generally great time. And I totally and thoroughly enjoyed watching her and taking lots of pictures and video!
I love to watch her go down the slide!
Long live unexpected and initially frustrating events that turn out to be exactly what we needed!
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