Frazzle. Fizzle. Fizzle, frazzle. What cool, weird words! They are the first that come to mind as I sit thinking about this day. I feel fully frazzled and fizzled, fried and frayed. It was a good day. I just spent it fighting the fizzled, frazzled feeling.
These are words of exhaustion, like tuckered or worn out. However, I don’t see them as words of total defeat. These words leave room for improvement, growth, and recovery. One can recover from experiencing exhaustion…right?
The morning began like most others. Then, it started gaining speed and it cruised downhill from there. The day was just extra busy and I was feeling its demands. To spare you the sob story and to sum it up quickly, there were more-than-usual mom responsibilities and more-than-usual work duties. This left us stumbling in the door to eat supper at 9:20PM!, piles of papers all over the table and kitchen counter, a load of day-old laundry stuck in the dryer, then the discovery that one of my munchkins had an oops the night before and their bedding wasn’t fit for sleeping in.
Frazzled!! Oh yes. Feeling fully stretched and pulled today.
Before I go on, I have to comment that I’m super thankful for Charlie. He was a glimmer of dazzle in my fizzle/frazzle. (Maybe I should write Hallmark cards. Or maybe not…) Seriously, he respected my time and my frustrations and that helped remarkably.
My kids have “grandma day” every Tuesday afternoon with my mom. Since we started the clinic almost 11 years ago, my mom has kept our kids one day per week so I could go in and work. (This is a sweet spot of the day. And she made some bananas foster, which I sampled. Then, re-sampled. Yum! Thanks, mom.) So that no one is feeling too sorry for the kiddos, they were with grandma for several hours today. But, for the nearly three hours they ended up sitting with us at work while we finished up some unexpected troubleshooting, they sat quiet and still. They were nearly perfect. Truly, and my heart almost melts as I reflect on several sweet spots of the day.
Before we left for home, I had a slight melting point. My sensitive, caring, and clever middle child came to me and held me in a precious hug. He then offered me cool glasses of water and squeezing me said, “don’t think of everything you need to still do, mama. Think about all the things you got done!” Well, now. Maybe HE should be the Hallmark card writer. Another dazzle in the fizzle/frazzle.
Arriving home late, my responsible, dependable, and sweet oldest son took full charge of getting the table ready for supper and took it upon himself to clean up everything after we ate. “I want you to rest, mom”, he said. He went above and beyond his usual chores and made the dazzle in the fizzle/frazzle even more shiny.
Wanting to be of assistance, my fun, little lady rushed to her school desk and told me not to look at her. After a few minutes, she produced a beautiful card and announced that I needed to keep it by my bed so I can always see it and think of her. Absolutely! Yet another sweet spot and more dazzle.
After the five of us hung out on the boys’ beds for a story, prayers were said, and all the kids were tucked in, I went to go change into jammies. It was then I remembered the sticker stuck on my shirt. “Good work”, it says. My daughter had given it to me earlier. At the clinic. “Here, mom. Because you do good work.”
Fizzled? Frazzled? Prized.
Yep, definitely prized.
Tonight, I am choosing to go to bed feeling PRIZED. Highly valued. Prized above the fizzle and frazzle of the day. I am blessed with the best family in the whole world. And I’m pretty sure my heart just melted all over again.
I Will Rejoice 
I love your upbeat and positive look on the day. You inspire me to look to the good, the blessings, however small they may appear 💕 Thank you Jendi 😊
Thank you for your kind words. There are treasures in each day, but sometimes I have to look a little more carefully.