Small Potatoes

What is this you may ask? I like to call this picture, my small potatoes. At pick up after school last week, both of my children thought it would be a good idea to dig in the dirt while playing with some friends. Let’s just assume that I may not have handled it as well as I should have handled it but in my defense, there was enough dirt on the school uniforms and imbedded in their nails to make any mother cringe. Day 2 at pick up, same scenario of both of my children picking flowers off of the trees and then trying to replant them in the dirt at school. Day 2 ended about the same way day 1 did, not so pretty. After the understanding smile of a friend who felt my pain and the gracious donation of her wipes (hence exhibit A above and thank you Cindy!), I wiped them both clean and marched them to the van only to continue the fuming on the ride home.

I have to admit I am a little embarrassed now that I am sharing the story “out loud”. Through my blushing cheeks, I am realizing 2 things:

1.    Mommy should have probably been keeping a closer eye on her dirt monsters so this so called “problem” would have never happened. And…

2.    It’s so silly to think just how upset I was about the whole ordeal.

Truth is, it wasn’t the digging in the dirt that made me upset or the fact that they were covered from head to toe in dirt but rather it was only the straw that broke the camels back. It was the icing on my very full cake that had already been building for some time. In fact, the ordeal really had nothing to do with either one of them but instead they were good targets at that time to take out every other frustration from the week.

After my blood pressure returned to normal levels, all I could think was, “small potatoes”. According to Free Dictionary, small potatoes means an irrelevant or unimportant concept or notion. It’s a familiar saying derived from the short lived satiation of one who has eaten a small potato.

 

The idea that the saying is derived from eating a small amount, c’mon this is not something I am familiar with so why on earth am I going to get so worked up over such a trivial event like getting dirty?

 

So here in lies the challenge. How and what am I going to let go so that I may fully enjoy my children and not use them as defenseless targets.  I like to call the challenge: OPERATION SMALL POTATO. I am looking around my house, my calendar, and my life in general and realizing just how much could be “let go”.

 
This one should be good…care to join me?

Kelly

xoxoxoxo