Good morning????

Serenity now!!!! I wanted to share with you what my week day mornings have been like. I take Hayden to school every morning and three days a week after I drop him off I head off to my job at the clinic. He got his permit this past summer and the Oregon law is that teens need to have 100 hours of driving under the supervision of an adult before they can take the test for their driver's license. It takes about a year to accumulate 100 hours, so I let him drive as much as I can and driving to school every day is a great way to get the hours.
Hayden is a really good driver, but I'm sure you can imagine the stress of teaching a teenage boy how to drive on the way to school while in a hurry not only to get to the school but then to my job by 8:00am!
Well, just mix in this little situation.....road work ahead! The sign should say Major Road Work Ahead or better yet.....Stressful Major Road Work Ahead, Please Stay Calm!
Oh my gosh, it is about all I can take trying to get him to school and then get myself to work on time! There are dump trucks and tractors, school buses, children on bikes, work men in the road and other mother's just like me and all of us seem to be in a hurry! But what we do is hurry up and wait!
Normally the route to school and then to the clinic just takes about 5 minutes, but during the construction it averaged about 20 minutes and sometimes longer! We started leaving the house a half hour in advance just to make sure we weren't late.
Everywhere we went we saw construction equipment. Hayden got some excellent driving experience with learning how to drive around big trucks, tractors and heavy equipment as well as multiple flaggers and traffic jams!
We have about three routes to chose from to get from our house to the school and if one day we took a certain route and it was clogged up with traffic or had roads closed, then the next day we would try another route only to find that it had road closures and traffic jams as well.
I took these pictures over a couple of days, but every day was the same. Stress and frustration. We always pray in the car on the way to school and I'm thankful that God was in the car with us, especially me with my stress level! I always feel that prayer really does help me keep my attitude in check!
Hayden actually has been doing such a great job. He seems to be a natural and is coming along really great.
But with all the stress, even my coffee doesn't seem to help!!! :0) I get so extra stressed because my boss is a stickler and does not tolerate tardiness. I can't be late! I can't be late!
Everywhere we look... construction!
Okay, stop and smell the roses......I thought these barriers looked neat all staked up together. LOL!
Actually there is much to be grateful for. I am thankful that all these workmen have jobs!!! They started this project in the spring when the economy was really at it's lowest, so this is a good thing.
Also, the fact that we are getting brand new roads and sidewalks are such a blessing. We had so many potholes in our old street and there was no sidewalk, so it was dangerous for the kids to walk to school. It just would have been nice for all the busy parents if they got it done before school started. I am sure it was hard and stressful on the construction workers as well as the bus drivers too.
Finally, we made it to the high school!
"Bye Hayden, I love you, have a nice day!"

He gets out of the drivers seat, I get out of the passenger seat we meet in the middle with a big hug and a wave goodbye. (Isn't he cute!!!)

I am proud to say that I never swear, yell or do hand gestures at other drivers or construction workers while driving and I do stay pretty calm, especially in front of my kids. I want to teach them that it doesn't help the situation to get like that. My problem is that I internalize it and my stomach gets in a big knot and my heart rate goes way up by the time I'm done! LOL!
Now I jump in the driver's seat....7:57, oh my gosh, I've got three minutes to get to work!
Grrr......
What, my short cut is closed??!!!
Ohhhhhhh!
Slow? You want me to drive slow??? Do you realize I'm trying to get to work here????
Hmmmmmmm!
Abrupt edge, how about abrupt woman who's gonna be late for work!!!
Come on!!!!
Ugh!!!
Finally, there's the clinic, I made it to work!
And on this particular day.....just in time!
I better run! I need 200 cc of coffee STAT!
I am just being funny here and poking fun at myself. This is such a small thing to put up with when there are so many people out there with really serious problems. I am just trying to make light of a daily nuisance we had for a few weeks. I have so much to be thankful for; I'm thankful that my kids were able to get an excellent free education and that I have a good job. I'm thankful for our awesome high school. I'm thankful for my wonderful son! I am thankful that I have a car to take my son to school with. I'm just sharing with you one of those daily aggravating situations we can have in our lives.

As mother's we need to remember our children are watching us all the time and watching and learning how we deal with stressful situations. I want to always try to be calm, patient and loving during these times. But, even if we lose our tempers for a moment, we need to remember to be quick to apologize and really try to learn from it and not do it again! Life isn't always perfect and we have to put up with little irritants and we need to be able to deal with them in a graceful manner, which I, unfortunately, do not always do!

Well, since I have taken these pictures, I am happy to report that the road work has ended! Now we are back to our happy, stress-free mornings and we can get to the school in 3 minutes and I can get to the office in another 2. Life is good!

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer." Romans 12:12

"A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly." Proverbs 14:29

xoxo, Sharon