At 5:30pm yesterday afternoon our day was going as normal. Mr 7 weeks old was getting grissly so I was in the bathroom getting ready for our nightly shower (yes we shower our bubbas instead of bath them as I find it easier and more efficient AND they have all loved it AND it means that I get to shower everyday as well haha)
Anyways, I had got undressed and so had our little Mr and just as I reached over to turn on the shower nothing came out? That was quite strange so I tried the sink tap and the bath water and sure enough nothing came out. Within a minute hubby (who was making dinner) came up to see if we had water running because he didn’t. Nope!!
He then went out the front of the house to investigate more and found quite a few of our neighbours on the street chatting as they too had no water. None of us knew what was going on and why we had no water?
All I knew was it was 5:30pm, I had a cranky 7 week old, dinner to cook, 2 other kids to feed, bath and get to bed and we had no water in the house at all. I stood there in the bathroom naked with a crying baby knowing it was shower time but there was not going to be any shower. I felt stressed and I felt angry and I wanted someone to blame in that moment for messing up my routine and making my evening a lot harder than what it was meant to be. Doesn’t the water person know how hard dinner and bedtime routine is with 3 kids even when everything is going smoothly let alone when things are going cray cray.
I knew our evening was going to get intense and be much harder work than usual and in that moment I had a choice and as overwhelmed as I was starting to feel about the next hour I realised how lucky I was to NOT have hot running water available in that moment.
NOT having hot running water when I expected to meant that 99.9% of the time in my life I do have hot running water when I expect it. WOW!! I have hot running water on tap when I expect it for me and my babies to get clean, relax in, enjoy, play in, cook and drink. WOW!!
I am a very routine person and kind of survive and thrive on these routines so when they get messed up I do start to feel quite anxious. Since having kids I have learnt that routine is good but is not guaranteed and me becoming anxious about everything not going to plan only makes the situation worse. If I can keep my cool, take a few breaths and realise that in the big scheme of things it is going to be ok and that I am truly blessed (even when challenging things happen) we as a family will do much better and it will be heaps less stressful in any given situation. Whether I like it or not I have come to realise that my attitude and mood generally sets the tone for the rest of the family.
I have come to learn about this idea called reframing where in a moment when I start to feel overwhelmed and anxious I acknowledge that feeling and what is happening and then I flip it on its head. The idea is to look at it from the opposite angle with eyes of gratitude and try and find some positive in the all the negative. Reframe what I am seeing and feeling.
I tell ya what …. IT WORKS!! Truly!! I stood there last night naked with crying baby realising how blessed and lucky I was as a mother to have water for my babies. I take that for granted and expect it to be there on tap which it is 99.9% of the time and I am grateful for the 0.01% of times where it is not there to make me realise how lucky I am.
I am happy to report that our little Mr cried a bit more than usual last night but eventually went to sleep, we boiled our corn and steamed our vegies using the water from our Easyo yogurt maker my fresh batch of yogurt had been sitting in all day, it was soda water all round for dinner and the kids went to bed unbathed and guess what …. we survived 🙂 woohoo
So next time you find yourself in a negative situation out of your control I encourage you to take a breath and a moment and try and reframe it and find something you can be grateful for!! It will change that moment in time for you and then your day and then your week and then your life 🙂
Written By Sam Shazzam aka School Mum
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