At the end of my rope

That's where I have been today. It all started today when, as I was getting the girls dressed upstairs to go to The Red Barn Festival, Yukon found an ink pen. I come downstairs and found him ON MY NEW COUCH chewing it to pieces. I spent the next hour cleaning the ink off my couch cushion. First I used soap and water, a joke. The furniture people said to always start with soap and water on microfiber... Ok, so then I did the aerosol hairspray thing. Some came out. Because of this stunt, I now have a crunchy couch cushion. Then I got out the denatured alcohol. (This is supposed to be the best stuff to get junk out of microfiber.) Well, most of the ink came out. But most isn't good enough. You can still see spots where the ink was really concentrated. I am not a violent person but I really wanted to hurt that dog. So I go to Red Barn, walk around the square twice because I don't want to come home to my ruined couch... I bought a few things to calm my anger. That felt good. I come home to a shredded blanket and batting all over the living room rug. OK, calmness is the key here. So it was just my old comforter from high school, but I DON"T CARE! Unless its a dog toy, don't chew it you idiots! I get Kira's pringle-looking can of baby cereal out of my purse and the lid had fallen off and they spill all over the place. I go through the trouble of making fresh tomatillo salsa for dinner and it's too spicy. I guess I added a few too many peppers. It's still edible over things, I guess. I go to Walmart to get a few food items and A LOT of dog bones, come home and the inner seal on the gallon of OJ that I bought is broken. Now I have to take that back. Who wants to take back orange juice to the store? I did try it anyway thinking maybe I won't have to return it... it tastes funny. I probably would have decided not to take it back if it didn't taste weird. Waiting in their customer service line will be fun. It has just been an Alexander day, I guess. Now the things I have learned from today... Some days are just terrible, horrible, no good, very bad. Every once and a while days like these are OK. Days like these teach me patience. I have analyzed myself multiple times today and have realized that I have progressed from being very angry to quite humbled. At first, I was just livid. My blood was close to boiling temperature. I wanted to get rid of Yukon. I kept thinking that he is just more trouble than he's worth. Then I was just mad. I was mad at him more than anything and no longer angry at everything around me. Then I went into quiet mode. The anger departed and I felt like just being alone. This finally led to a self-realization that I handled things very poorly. I wasn't patient at all. I didn't act like Christ would have acted. I was rude to Adam and Adalin as I was sponging off the cpuch cushion. I almost didn't want all of it to come out just so that I would be justified for being so angry, ornery and rude. By the end of the day I felt very humbled and realized that I have a lot of work to do. I think of how Adam's mom (who I really admire for her sweet tone of voice and patience) would have handled it. She would have just sternly told Yukon that that was bad, and would have gotten to work without the anger. She would have just realized that some things are just out of her control and that she needs to just take what has been handed to her. Why, in the heat of the moment, can't I be level-headed? Sometimes I do wonderfully. Most of the time I don't. This is something that I have been really trying to work on. I have plenty of opportunities to do so too. I was almost brought to tears many times throughout the day. This series incidents were really just the icing on the cake. The past two weeks have been a nightmare. I have hardly seen Adam at all. We both rush in and out of the house so quickly that we don't even know what to do with ourselves. I am failing at my calling in Young Women's. I am in charge of our ward's portion of the stake relief society enrichment thing this Saturday and have tons to do with that (on gardening). I don't prepare as much as I should for my primary calling. I have 2 positions in SAA, two dogs, a cat, a medical student as a husband, two kids, weight to loose, muddy floors, a backyard FULL of acorns and leaves, dirty dishes in my sink, ink on my couch cushion, laundry to fold... I could go on and on. But is it really all that bad? I need to just make it through the next week and it will be much better.

Since I am trying to look on the bright side of things, at least they have learned to share the purple chair.