I Just Climbed Mt Everest...

I just climbed Mt. Everest...

Well, in my own way.

It wasn't really Mt. Everest, of course. Did you know Everest is in China and Nepal? I didn't until recently when, as I was homeschooling, I learned that right along with my kids... funny. Maybe everyone knows and I just didn't. Anyhoo, that's a side note.

I had an "Everest Moment" today.

I've been crazy busy simplifying our home (read more about that HERE), and with the yard sale, as I've mentioned. My husband worked Sunday and I stayed home with kids. It's just been BUSY!!! And, so, I haven't made it to the grocery store to buy food. I haven't made it to ANY store to buy a few simple things we need for the house, and yesterday I was SO BURNT OUT by my baby screaming at me all day I took a break (ALONE!) at the park instead of going grocery shopping...

We are out of bread, milk, tortilla shells, sour cream, nuts, and about everything else. In my fridge I have rotting fruit (well, I did last night. I threw them out!), salad dressing, and cheese. Yeah, I bought cheese last week and veggies and nothing else because I fully intended to go "real" grocery shopping before now.

I woke up this morning at 7:30 with determination. I would get ready IMMEDIATELY and we would all be out the door by 8:30, on our way to the store. It worked! Well, we were in the car by 8:45 but close! I had my coffee (with BUTTER in it for the cream, again, no milk), my oatmeal with white sugar (we're out of brown) and blueberries (that I picked out of the going bad batch), and half of my lemon water still to drink and off we went!

We first made a stop to get all the random house things I need to get. That took over an hour! So at 10:30 I was kind of freaking out about grocery shopping. It usually takes me TWO hours to grocery shop (which would leave us an HOUR past baby's nap time and consequently in a nightmare of stress and crying). PLUS, I still have yet to take all three kids grocery shopping without getting anxious and turning into a stress monster...

So I knew I was about to climb my personal Everest... (Yes, I'm being dramatic). I gave my girls the game plan. "Okay guys!" I started the pep talk, "We have ONE HOUR to get in and out of the store. One of you is going to take care of your brother, the other help me, got it?" "Yes Mom." They replied. We all kind of like a challenge. :)

In the grocery store we went, with a game plan, and the kids with strict instructions of how they could best help me accomplish our goal. TEAM WORK! And, much to my surprise, it worked!!

My girls hung behind me with baby brother in another cart. I rushed around like a mad women, insisting that I needed to focus if we were going to make it, and I BLAZED through that entire store, getting everything on my list, WITH three children in toe, in LESS than an hour! (I did, however, overspend a tad, which I rarely do.) 

It was a GREAT accomplishment and I was incredibly proud of our team effort. My beautiful daughters helped so much! We walked out of that store, laden with two carts of groceries, with out heads held high. We had entered, we had "attacked", and we had CONQUERED! Lol.

As we drove away, I thought "I just climbed Mt Everest". I didn't think it was possible to NOT have anxiety while shopping with all three kids AND I accomplished my goal in LESS than the best-case-scenario-time goal. 

This reminds me strongly of Lee's blog about My Version of Hard. It's very true, we grow stronger and find new ways of doing things with every new child that is added to our family.

What would you like to accomplish? What goal have you made happen that you didn't think you could? I would LOVE to hear your stories in the comments below.

As always,

Much love,

-Joy