My Little Poppies

Suddenly, unexpectedly, homeschooling

My leaky bucket

By Leave a Comment

This morning was one of those days. I only managed to get two [interrupted] hours of sleep. I am a lifelong insomniac so I’m pretty good at rolling with the whole sleep deprivation thing with the exception of when I’ve had close to no sleep and then interrupted sleep. Last night was one of those no sleep + interrupted sleep nights and everyone, self included, woke up crabby. I tried coffee. I tried a little reading over breakfast. I tried to grin and bear it, but there was a lot of whining, several breakfast spills, a threatening headache, an uncooperative dog, and then a bunch of unnecessary drama that made us late for one thing and then another. I hate to be late, so that made me even crabbier. Wednesdays are our busiest days and I started to feel crabby and overwhelmed. When I left our playgroup this morning, I laughed and told my friends I was already counting the minutes until bedtime. I was prepared to give in and embrace the bad mood. It was winning and I was too tired to fight it off.

child-392971_1280

In the car on the way to piano lessons, I confessed my mood to the boys and I apologized for being crabby. They simultaneously responded with, “It’s okay.” And then, almost as if on cue, we heard one of my favorite songs on the radio. Leo shouted, “Mum! It’s like the universe KNEW you needed to hear this song!” I smiled, I couldn’t help it. We arrived at piano and Leo beamed as he played. Smiles are contagious, especially the smiles of children. My bad mood flinched.
We stopped at home for a quick lunch and while we were eating, Seuss asked, “Mum, if you’re in a bad mood does that mean you need to fill your bucket?”

An Instant Dump Classic

The back story to this question is this: a few years ago, we found a children’s book titled Have You Filled A Bucket Today? in the free book section of our town’s transfer station, a.k.a. the dump. We love free books from the dump and this one was what we call “an instant dump classic.” It is a very sweet book on kindness using a metaphor that children can easily understand: an invisible bucket. The idea is that everyone carries with them an invisible bucket. The happy people in this world make all the other people around them feel happy, so they are bucket fillers whereas the crotchety and unkind people in this world are bucket dippers, and they make others around them feel pretty lousy. All of our children love “The Bucket Book,” but Seuss might be obsessed with it, probably because he is a World Champion Bucket Filler. Anyone who has ever met Seuss in real life can attest to the fact that he gives the best hugs in the world. Now that he is Bucket Book obsessed, he will give one of these phenomenal hugs and then end it with, “Did I just fill yer bucket?!”
When Seuss asked me if my bad mood meant I needed to fill my bucket, I told him that I was trying to keep my bucket full but that today my bucket was leaky. I thought to myself, “Oh, crap! Am I being a bucket dipper in front of these two sweet boys?” just as Seuss jumped into my lap and proceeded to hug the heck out of me. It looked sort of like this photo I texted to Schizz yesterday:

I sent this photo to Schizz with the caption, “Did I just fill yer bucket?!”

He squeezed the ever living daylights out of me and then sat back and cupped my face in his sweet little hands and asked, “Did that fill yer bucket up or do you need one more?” Folks, I’m no fool. I let The Ambassador of Joy hug the heck out of me until it was time to drop Leo off at art class and pick T up from school. When we picked T up from school, she presented me with some mom bling:

I’ve been wearing it all afternoon and have received many compliments, compliments which filled T’s bucket.
We hit up the farm, the playground, and the library and yes, it was freezing, but the sun was shining. Buckets full, we went to pick up Leo at art class and head home for the day. I walked into the studio and he shouted, “Mum! Don’t look yet! I have to add one more thing!” I waited a minute and then he proudly presented mewithaseaturtlezentangle. As he handed it to me, he said, “I made this for you because I know they are your favorite animal and they always make you remember Hawaii.”

My bucket overfloweth.

So there it is, folks: a leaky bucket, patched with little acts of love. It has been a pretty good day after all.

Take THAT, bad mood.
Tell me, folks, how do you turn a bad mood around? Any tips? Share here!
***
Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.
~Abraham Lincoln
***
Follow Cait

Caitlin Fitzpatrick Curley

Cait is a school psychologist, mom to three amazing children, and an unexpected homeschooler. She loves nature, good books, board games, strong coffee, and dancing in her kitchen. You can read about all of these things and more at My Little Poppies.

Cait co-hosts The Homeschool Sisters Podcast and is co-founder of Raising Poppies, a community for parents of gifted and twice-exceptional children. Cait is also founder of the Family Book Club at My Little Poppies, a fantastic community of book-loving parents and the Gameschool Community at My Little Poppies, a vibrant community of gameschoolers.

Cait is a contributing writer for Simple Homeschool and GeekMom. Her work has also appeared on The Huffington Post, The Mighty, and Scary Mommy. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram
and G+.
Follow Cait

Latest posts by Caitlin Fitzpatrick Curley (see all)

Keep reading::

 Feeling Like a Failure I read a wonderful post early this morning and it has haunted me, in the best possible way, all day long. I kept coming back to THIS post, which has b...
When Your Child is a Perfectionist Do you remember this post that I wrote about our son's perfectionism getting in his way? Leo is a perfectionist and, such, he is afraid of failure to ...
Make Your Own Worry Basket So a couple of months ago, when we were in the midst of a terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad sleep phase over here, I posted a photo of Leo's Worry Ba...
12 Things My Kids Have Learned From Kenny Chesney 12 Things My Kids Have Learned From Kenny Chesney In our home, and in my car, we listen to my music. You will not find me driving around town ro...
On Motherhood Hello there, mama. You look tired. Has this been a day? Trust me, I know those days. Come here and sit down for a minute. I want to tell you the...
Share
Pin10
+1
 

Something new every day! Shop women’s on zulily.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Share
Tweet5
Pin10
+1