Today was a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day.

When I was a child, I loved the book Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day. It was about a boy who had everything go wrong and at the end of the day he realized that tomorrow will be better. Even as a child, I wanted to know that everyone went through bad days. It is a universal need to know that we aren't alone in our feelings of disappointment and hurt. That is one reason why I wanted to write this blog; sometimes it looks like everyone around you is leading the perfect life and you are left out of "perfect world" but let me tell you a secret (there is no "perfect world" and you are normal). We all have bad days, we all mess up and we all need encouragement. You know what else, it is OK that our lives aren't perfect. Well, with that introduction, let me tell you about my terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day. It all started while my daughter, son and I were waiting for the bus. I happened to look out the window where a small stream of water trickled down the window pane. My first thought was "Oh, how sweet, an icicle is melting..." Then the next thought was "Huh, that is strange, I've never seen an icicle in Augusta, Georgia before." Then I noticed that my curtain, the one I made myself, the one I loved, was dripping water! That led me to look up and I shuddered at the spreading stain on my ceiling. I threw some towels at my kids and gave the instructions "Watch the time, watch for the bus, mop that water up" and ran upstairs to find the leak. My daughter promptly stationed herself between a clock and the front door watching both the time and for the bus. She then gave instructions to my son to mop up the water with the towels. When my son soaked the towels I had given him, he did what every self-sufficient 4 year old would do and grabbed a generous amount of paper napkins from the kitchen table and proceeded to mop some more. Yes, we work together like a well oiled machine in the face of crisis; I would like to tell you that has nothing to do with the vast amount of practice we have dealing with things like this- but then I would be lying. I found the toilet in my bathroom leaking water from the tank and was able to turn the valve to the off position. The rest of my morning went pretty much the same. A friend got called into work and couldn't meet for coffee; my beagle found a new way to escape from the backyard; I met someone I once knew in a store and after talking for a few minutes realized why we weren't friends anymore; the $50 off coupon from Office Max that looked too good to be true turned out to be too good to be true (they printed "see details" on the coupon but forgot to print what the details were- I just got $5 off). I came home for lunch and an idea occurred to me. Now I suspect that this idea may have come from God because I'm not this smart but it did help. I had a realization that there was no reason to be angry. I didn't need to be angry at myself, at the world and especially not at God. I then had my delicious left-overs from dinner last night; found my beagle just 5 feet from our front door; and when I got home from picking my son up at preschool found Robbie to the Rescue (my husband's nephew who can fix just about anything) already working on the toilet. Then I had another thought, probably from God again, that God will take care of all of our needs. So, even if you have a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day, know that God will take care of each and every need.