One Thing At A Time...

You know those days when you're already starting out exhausted and overwhelmed?  Yeah, me too. 

Had one of those recently.  Didn't help that I'd just gotten back from a long business trip and got up at o' dark hundred the next morning to go to the barn, which was then followed by lacrosse practice and something else which I can't for the life of me remember.

So, we were on a schedule.  Or, rather, I was. The kids were not.  Despite several countdown style warnings of imminent departure no one was standing at the door ready, and when my daughter came down still wearing her pajamas after 20 minutes in her room doing God knows what, I lost the cheese off my cracker.

Seriously, it was not a Mother of the Year moment.  More like a Mommie Dearest moment.  The cats and the husband ran for cover. I said yelled bellowed something along the lines of "You have @#!$% #@!&%!" and slammed off into the car to wait for the sheepish offspring.  The drive down to the barn was quite, except for the radio and my deep breathing.

Here's another area where this whole mental coach thing comes in handy.  This whole "forget outside distractions and focus solely on one's task" helped me focus on breathing.  Then I could focus on driving.  Which meant I was not choking my children or distracted by all the other crap that I was allowing to irritate me.  Which was good.

When we got to the barn and the boy couldn't bridle the mare (he had her full cheek snaffle shank poking up her nostril) and the girl disappeared, leaving her half-tacked pony on the crossties, I focused on my immediate task, which was finding the daughter, breathing and not choking my children, and somehow getting them onto their respective mounts.  I did not think of the house I needed to clean, or how I would get the boy fed before lacrosse practice.  Just got the job done.  Somehow.  Without bloodshed or pharmaceutical or oenological assistance.  (Who knew?)

I even managed to give the boy a longe line lesson on the Sainted Mare.  It went well.  And despite the fact that the daughter did her best to disappear again, I got the boy home in time to eat lunch and get to lacrosse.

Focus on the immediate task, huh?  Drop all the other baggage?  Seriously, who knew?