Ok, so maybe I use the term “disaster” too loosely. It was not life-threatening. It was not even mildly traumatic. No blood was lost. The only tears shed were my own. It was over before the end of the day. What it was, however, was a big, fat annoying mess.
I knocked my bag of cloth diaper detergent off the shelf onto the floor. Ugh.
Do you ever do things a little too fast and if you just slowed down a bit fewer mistakes would be made? I feel like I have been moving too fast every day since Thanksgiving. Nevermind that in that short time we’ve hosted a first birthday party for my daughter, got the tree, attended a cookie exchange to which I had to bring three dozen cookies (a feat because cookies around this house do not last), fought the crowds in the dark at our local zoo to view Christmas lights, bought and wrapped all Christmas gifts, hosted 35 people for dinner…oh, and tried to remember the real meaning of the season.
No matter what’s going on, mistakes happen when I move too fast and have too much on my mind. The detergent spill is a good example.
I was trying to move a load from the lower washer to the upper dryer and add a new load to the washer, all while balancing the baby on my hip (because she refuses to be put down lately). My hand moved too fast past the detergent bag, which was perched a little too close to the edge and down it went, spilling almost all contents onto the floor, under the washer and all over the other laundry containers. It looked like it snowed in my tiny laundry room, but my first thought was “Nooooo! Not the diaper detergent!!”
I really treasure my cloth diaper detergent. I’m not sure it’s working as well as it could because I still have a bit of stank, but I am quite in love with the scents, clean rinsing formula and just the idea of a detergent only for the fluffies. I love the packaging and love that a bag lasts me a long, long time (I use Rockin’ Green!). But for those moving as fast as I am these days…please remember to close the bag when not in use!
But I got the mess cleaned up. Sloooowly. My daughter was crawling all over, trying to play with the powdery fun and it took a really long time to sweep up and wipe everything down. But the point is it stopped my day in its tracks. It forced me to stop and spend a half hour taking care of something not on my agenda. After that, since my schedule was already behind, we started playing an unexpected game of CandyLand and had a blast together as a family. And that, my friends, was the blessing in this whole “disaster.” I don’t know about you, but I sometimes need those little reminders to take it slower, not be so rigidly scheduled and remember to enjoy my kids. They are only young once.
In this week leading up to Christmas, when everything has a tendency to pick up the pace, I’m going to make a concerted effort to remember my detergent spill (or unexpected phone call or missing shoe), slow it down and really enjoy the magic of the season. Detergent on the floor or not.
P.S. Dear Santa: I could really use a new bag of Rockin’ Green…
Sarah is a mom of two and blogs about her adventures in motherhood, cloth diapering and everything in between. Catch her “Cloth Diapering Unwrapped” series on the FuzziBunz blog every Tuesday.
