One of my all time favorite quotes, the one that helped me through countless days like the one I’m about to describe for you sits in a prominent place in our home.  I put it there for a reason.  At least 500 times a day I walk past it and have the constant reminder that I am not in control over much of what happens in this life.  However, I am able to choose how I respond. And that is only by the grace of God.  I most certainly am not able to do any of it in my own power!

Around here we have lots of stormy weather.  I think it all started when Josiah was just about 5 years old.  Seemingly out of the blue, our sweet little guy decided to crank up the noise.  He went from cuddly, loving and curious to becoming explosive almost overnight. Looking back though, those were just heavy rain showers.  As he’s gotten older we’ve endured gale force winds and frequent flash flooding much more often than I’d care to admit.

There were no warnings, no Space City Weather guys preparing us for the impending doom.  It was just us, fumbling our way through with a house full of kids, trying to figure it all out.  Most of the time it was not pretty.

And then, we learned to dance!

This morning Josiah urinated just outside the bathroom, leaving a large puddle on the carpet at the door.  I’m not sure why he didn’t make it inside the bathroom or onto the commode.  But no worries, a quick once over (or maybe two or three passes over) with the steam cleaner and all was well.

After the quick clean up, I decided to give him a hair cut.

Keep in mind hair cuts don’t frequently happen around here and when they do it’s usually the Whisperer who saves the day and gives our guy a trim.

So, I prepared Josiah with a social story video.  I talked to him about what was about to happen and what to expect.  I set a timer to give him processing time.  I explained that afterward he would have a shower and then we would go to church. (spoiler alert:  we never made it to church)

Josiah wasn’t as excited about the hair cut idea as I was.   At this point the winds started to pick up.   I could see he was getting anxious.  I thought about lacing up my tap shoes but didn’t think it was necessary just yet.

I got in one or two passes with the clippers and Josiah took off.  Offering him a short break, I set a 5 minute timer and cleaned the hair off the floor.   When the timer rang, Josiah refused to come back to the table where the adventure had begun.  Instead, he sat on a living room chair, resistant to any more intrusions in his morning.

I brought the clippers to him and got a few more swipes in, thinking it was working out well. From there he moved over to his trampoline.  I climbed up on it with him.  A few more quick snips and he was off to the bean bag chair.  Josiah stretched himself out across the length of it trying to avoid me.

This guy may be determined but so am I.

Somehow I managed to give him a fairly decent hair cut.  As soon as it was over, Josiah ran off to the bathroom.  While he was sitting calmly on the commode,  I was able to trim a few of the longer hairs that I had missed and then give him a quick shower.

Just after drying him off, Josiah sat down outside the shower door and had a bowel movement right there on the ceramic tile floor.  He then preceded to get some poo under his finger nails, on his chest and back and Lord knows where else.

Rick cleaned that up as I raced him to the bathroom where he proceeded to finish what he had started, all over the bathroom floor.   For some unknown reason, he refused to sit on the toilet.  There was a bit of a tussle trying to get him up out of the mess and back into our bathroom for shower #2.

While Rick took care of Josiah, I cleaned and sanitized his bathroom.  I mopped his bathroom floor and wiped down the walls.  I vacuumed up the hair that was covering the living room carpet, furniture, trampoline and bean bag chair.  I steam cleaned the carpet a second time because it was necessary.

I removed the cover from the beanbag chair and tossed it in the wash with his dirty clothes.  I still need to clean our bathroom and wash all the towels left in a pile on the floor in there.  I also need to mop that floor.

But once Josiah was dressed and Rick suggested they go out for a ride, I took a short break and stopped to reflect.

None of this was expected.  All of it required lots of time and attention and clean up.  Much of it was yucky and not what I would choose to do given the option.  But, I had no choice.  It happened.

How did I respond?  By making the best of it.  I put calming classical music on Josiah’s shower radio, dimming the lights in the bathroom with only the shower spot light (which he loves to stare at) shining above him.

I put in earbuds with my most favorite songs blaring as I cleaned up the mess.  I sang along out of tune as I thought about how thankful I am that we have running water, a mop and cleaning supplies, a washer and dryer and a resilient kid who goes with the flow sometimes, despite his desire to resist it.

I sat down and wrote it all down to remind me that this too shall pass.

I hear Rick and Josiah returning now.  The noise coming from the driveway gives them away.  My break was over.  But, unfortunately, gale force winds were still gusting.

I’ll spare all the details but suffice it to say the rest of the day was stormy!

By bedtime:

• Josiah had 3 showers
• Our carpets were steam cleaned multiple times
• Bathroom floors were mopped again and again
• Josiah’s sheets were washed, then washed again while a fresh set was put on just before bed
• Many loads of dirty clothes and towels rotated through the laundry as well
• Josiah’s bathroom and bedroom were sanitized and deodorized

Now that he’s in bed, I think it’s safe to say the weather outlook may be improving.

As for me, I inhaled chocolate peanut butter ice cream as if it was being discontinued.  Tonight, it was my dinner.  I enjoyed not one but two triple scoop ice cream cones and savored every single second.

Now how’s that for dancing in the rain?