Pressure

Do you ever have those days when the pressure mounts and mounts and builds and builds and rumbles around inside you like boiling water ready to burst open at any minute?  I do.  Like yesterday.  The ironic thing is I never really knew it was there until it was too late...far too late.  I have to admit, I really didn't handle it great.  I said things like, "if I'm going to be treated like a maid, I might as well start acting like one.  Maids don't eat dinner with the family."  As soon as I finished making dinner, I left to get the much-needed items on our grocery list...didn't even eat.  Thankfully, I have a husband who does not feed off the dramatic antics.  He let me throw my fit and calmly waited for me to "get it all out."  Then he insisted I "take the rest of the night off" while he changed the rest of the poopy diapers, gave Maddie her bath, and put her to bed. I do have a great husband.

I wonder if Maddie may have been feeling the same pressure yesterday.  She was all out of sorts when she woke up from her nap...really grumpy!  Although it was still pretty hot outside, I knew we needed SOMETHING to do at least for a little while.  I thought she would like to paint with her feet.  So I set everything up and thankfully, it was the perfect pressure relief valve for her.  

We started with our feet, but the activity soon took on a turn...

She discovered hands painted a little better than feet.

 And then she discovered it felt a lot better to ditch the poster board and use herself as a canvas.

pure joy

I had intended to use a tub to wash off feet before going back inside.  Maddie, of course, had other ideas...

Wouldn't it be nice to be two again and feel the paint between your toes for the first time?  Even if it can't be painting with feet, I think we all need pressure relief valves.  I'm working on figuring out what mine are but in the meantime I found comfort in Matthew 11:28 "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest."  Maybe that's all I need.  Period.