Shit Happens

It’s okay… Shit happens!” I have heard that saying more than a few times, and it has never been more true tonight

Let me preface this story by saying today has been a long day. As I’m sure many of you know that feels. I started today out with an eight-and-a-half-mile hike at eight o’clock AM with one of my dearest friends. Neither of us planned for our hike to be eight and a half miles, but when you’re exploring a new park you’ve never been to, it’s not a bad idea to have directions pulled up on your phone or at least be confident in your map-reading abilities. Well, neither of us did those things and after about three miles we were reaching our desired ending point. The only problem, we were slightly lost. We continued walking, thinking surely we would be reaching the end of the loop any minute. That was not the case. After seven miles of walking (in terrible shoes), I decided to pull up directions because I had at least two blisters fully formed on the bottom of my feet and I desperately needed to sit in a cool car and drink some water. We finally made it back… after three hours.

We stopped at a local coffee shop to yap some more with each other before going home and showering. After I got out of the shower I was more sore than I have been in SO long. The pain I knew at mile three I would be feeling had fully set in. I would say this pain was worse than I felt after giving birth. Don’t know if that’s true, but in my heart, I believe it is because my legs have never felt more pain. This is sad to me because I realize I’m just out of shape; working on that. Somehow I managed to get out of the house once more because, before the whole hiking idea came into my head, I had plans to go get Mexican food and margaritas at a new Mexican place I have been wanting to try. It was like our reward after this morning’s adventure.

In the past when days like this happen, I’m not feeling great and just need some rest, I’m able to lay low the rest of the day, and not do much. However, I now have a ten-month-old—an active ten-month-old who needs ALL of my attention. So, my sore body had to chase her around all afternoon and evening solo because hubby was playing bass at church tonight. She was not okay with laying low. She needed to play and move around, A LOT. So of course, that’s what we did. I tried to entertain her with her water table outside, which lasted maybe ten minutes. So, when all else fails, we go for a walk… just what I needed. Thankfully this girl loves to swing. I stopped at the nearest park and let her swing for about thirty minutes before she got sick of it. At this point my girl was TIRED. Got home and made her some dinner and bathed her. Finally, I thought, I sat down on the closed toilet seat while she played with her bath toys and I scrolled TikTok. Everything was great. She was content and I didn’t have to move.

Well, the next time I looked up from my phone, I saw a little green log floating in the water and her trying to catch it. I get up and look closer and I see little poo flakes floating all over. Yeah, my sweet angel baby girl pooped in her bath. Cleaning that mess was probably the most disgusting thing I have done as a mom thus far.

Even though today had some low points, it was such a good day. I got to see my best friend, spend a few hours in nature and out of the office, drank good coffee, enjoyed a margarita, and finished this day with over 20k steps. I call that a win… even considering the literal shit I had to touch with my bare hands.

My best advice for days like these is to find a quiet moment and enjoy a drink or snack in peace. After you do that, go to sleep. Everything tends to be better the next day if you just let yourself get some rest.