Early to Rise Challenge: Day 5

The theme for Day Five is "It's Not Always Easy."

Now, it looks like today started out well enough.  I woke up a half hour early and decided to use the time doing things instead of trying to get in extra rest.  For some reason, I was extra-wide-awake.

But then I ran into some of those excuses I referenced on Day One.  The coffee pot, being full of my husband's coffee wasn't ready for my decaf...

(which, by the way, I take with milk - and sugar in the first cup only)

...and I don't like to disturb my husband's quiet time with my quiet time.  I'm still trying to memorize the book of James (I got through most of three chapters before I got pregnant and my quiet time faltered, and I've just picked it up again recently), so my "quiet" time is a lot of verbal recitation.  So I ended up distracting myself aimlessly and wasting extra time.  In short, I did not Have A Plan.

And then things got really difficult.

I wanted orange juice with my breakfast.  I'd thawed a can of concentrate yesterday but the juice pitcher wasn't clean at the time.  So I went to mix it up today and found that the lid was stuck tight to the can even after peeling away the little strip around it.  It took so much force to pry it off that, even as carefully as I was applying pressure, the lid literally flew off and the can fell over and spilled everything.  Juice concentrate ran down the cabinets, splashed all over the floor and spattered my last clean pair of maternity-friendly pants.  And my slippers.

And of course, juice concentrate is fiendish to clean up.  I used three kitchen towels, but they really only contained the mess and didn't absorb it in any quantity.

Breakfast was starting to cool off by that point, so I had to abandon the contained spill for later.  And in my frazzlement, I distributed (gasp!) the wrong color bibs to each child.  Sunshine immediately grabbed for her red bib and upended her milk.  Used towel count has now reached four, emptying the kitchen linen drawer.  Furthermore, my alumni magazine did not get dried off as well as  I thought and is now decoupaged to the kitchen chair.

Now, I'd made a plan for this part of the day.  It just was a lot easier than what now lay before me.  I'd planned to sweep the kitchen floor and sort laundry.  And I couldn't really omit either to do the new tasks.  I had to sort laundry and find more towels, in case they became necessary.  And I had to sweep the floor... so I could wash it.

And to top it all off, the orange juice accident is exactly the sort of completely demoralizing incident that makes me completely question my entire worth as a creation of God.  Because any other regular person could have held on to the can and prevented the spill, but God saw fit to let me be born with a disability that prevents me from doing this.  It's funny - it's much easier to accept my physical limitations when I come up against something big (for instance, playing the clarinet), but the completely idiotic things like a juice spill really get to me.

But to cut a very long story short, I borrowed my neighbor's mop (on account of our sponge mop being put back with the wringer engaged) and got the floor done in barely enough time to make lunch and hustle Pippin off to preschool.  I did more of my James recitation while mopping and started to climb out of my spiritual black pit.  And I wiped down all the kitchen cabinets, thus completing Assignment #13 of the Organized Home challenge.

I would not have gotten all this done if it weren't for the spill, and it's awfully energizing to get things done.  It may well keep me motivated to do more tomorrow.  So I guess it's a blessing in disguise.