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the healing powers of a chocolate chip cookie

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

This picture has nothing to do with this post. It's just too cute.

The idea of taking both my babies to a restaurant always makes me a bit nervous. The idea of taking them to a sit down restaurant alone is not even an idea I ever dare to entertain. But today, I must have woken up feeling extra courageous because I made the spur of the moment decision to take my two out to lunch. Just me and my babies. 

Now, I know this is nothing medal-worthy, and that millions of women do this daily. But let me tell ya... when you have one under two, and one under one...things are tricky. I would think it's like juggling. Normally, you have one ball, then another smaller ball, and who knows, maybe a third and a fourth ball if you're lucky. Sometimes I feel like I'm juggling a ball and a banana. And this is coming from someone who never ever got the hang of juggling in gym class. (Whyyyyy did we juggle in gym??)

So, off to lunch we went. I had J in the stroller and S was very excited to help me push him through the parking lot. I ordered our meals, we sat at our table, and guess what? We rocked it! After ordering our meals I had the chance to order it to go. But no! I would not take my meal to go! I came here and we were going to eat lunch at a table!

Okay...so yeah, we got a ton of the usual looks of people doing the math in their heads trying to figure out how far apart they are. Yeah, S still doesn't like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. (Why am I still trying to make that happen?) Yeah, she really just wanted to pick out and eat every single piece of edamame in my salad and eat it. Yeah, little J got startled when someone nearby dropped a fork. And yeah, I came nowhere near close to finishing my food. Despite all those things, I consider today a huge success.

At one point, I was feeding J in the stroller with one hand and trying to get S to eat her sandwich with my other hand. At that very moment, I had the thought, "You can do hard things." 

Do you ever feel like life is trying to teach you a lesson, and that the same one is hammered into you time and time and time again? At this stage of my life, this is the lesson that I am constantly learning. 

Quite often, I find myself giving myself pep talks:

You can do hard things...but you don't need to be perfect.
You can do hard things...but sometimes you need help.
You can do hard things...but it's okay to take it easy.
You can do hard things...and it's enough just to know that.
You can do hard things...and what you're about to do does not even make the top ten list of hard things you'll ever do.
You can do hard things...and this too shall pass.

So, where does the cookie come in? I ordered one because I knew that after I put the kids down for their nap, I would be a bit worn. I knew that I would grab the comfiest blanket in the house, lay on the couch and sigh. 

There's nothing like a good chocolate chip cookie that says, "Good job, mama. You did it."

6 comments:

Christopher said...

I love you and am so proud of you.

Also, can I guess where you went? Panera?

Karim Jones said...

Ding! You must be my husband :)

Shaun and Lanette said...

I love this. You are an amazing mama! Going out with one kid is exhausting enough, you're a champion with your little ones. And by the way, they are both so gorgeous! You have a really beautiful family. I loved reading this, you write so well, I could just hear you telling the story as if in person. :) And I'm right there with you on chocolate chip cookies. Totally my favorite treat. You so deserved that!

Karim Jones said...

Thanks for the many many kind words, Lanette! I sometimes worry that what I'm writing doesn't make sense to anyone besides me :) As a mama to a toddler yourself, I know you can totally relate. Hope you treat yourself to something sweet, too!

Kallie said...

Thanks for sharing Karim! I really enjoyed reading this! You are a rock star!

Karim Jones said...

Definitely not a rock star, but thanks! Hope you've been surviving your week without Josh okay. It's hard not having your spouse around.

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