When Life Gives You Lemons

I don’t know about you, but my life philosophy has always been when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

I tend to focus my thoughts on all the positives in my life and lately, there have been a lot of great things. 

Tyson is doing great in school and more importantly, is happy to go each morning. 

Lincoln is ‘living his best life’, enjoying being a preteen with little responsibilities, besides hanging out with his friends and playing basketball.

Throw in a piece of cheesecake here and there (and a Diet Pepsi of course, because what’s cheesecake without a Diet Pepsi), and that is enough to balance out the negative with the positive for me. 

But lately, it hasn’t been enough.

Maybe that’s because I feel like I spend most of my day dodging lemons.

I recently started a new job (sort of) and so trying to maintain my already strained work-life balance has been difficult.

I can’t imagine what teachers are feeling right now, but I know I for one am so tired of getting kids up and ready for school. Getting Lincoln to the bus by 7:25 every morning has been painful. Two non-morning people trying to get ready in the morning is an awful combination. 

It’s a good thing Mark and Tyson are the opposite of me and Lincoln, if not, I don’t think any of us would make it out the door in the morning. 

And then fast forward to evenings and I am trying desperately to get Lincoln to finish all his academic tasks before the end of the year – can we just end it right here and call it a year?!?!

I’m a mixed bag of emotions – I can’t wait for Lincoln to be finished and I dread for school to be over for Tyson.

Tyson has had a stellar year. September means a new school year and a new school team. It always feels like starting over. 

ABA therapy, which Tyson has availed of since he was two years old, is finishing up at the end of this month and that makes me a little sad.

And I’m also unsure how to occupy Tyson all summer. One can not swim 8 hours a day. 

We are also dealing with family health issues. Nothing too serious but also no end in sight. 

Everywhere I look I see a problem that needs fixing, a concern that someone should be worrying about or a task that is overdue (did I mention I haven’t filed my taxes yet; send help!) 

Does anyone else feel this way?

I feel exhausted!

And done!

So why I am sharing this with you? 

It’s not for pity or even empathy.  

It’s for acknowledgment! 

It’s to say out loud, that it is okay to be a little sour from time to time and have yourself a little pity party for one. 

It’s okay to acknowledge that sometimes life can be tough and the attitude that ‘it could be worse’ is not helpful to anyone! 

And so I thought, if I feel this way, I’m sure there are others out there that feel it too. 

So I’m sharing this with all of you to give you permission to have moments of acknowledgment when life hands you an entire basket of lemons.

It’s okay to feel you have been given too much!

So here’s to sitting with our lemons and puckering our sour faces from time to time.