Alarms

 "You can survive on your own. You can grow strong on your own. But you can not become human on your own." Frederick Buechner

I am doing afternoon carpool with Peanut today and will be out in the time I usually prepare dinner.

Cue crock pot. Thank you for slow cookers.

I put a part of tonight's dinner in the crock pot, plugged it in, turned it on.

It immediately sparked, popped, caught fire. And burned my kitchen counter.

This morning is all "This is Us" vibes around here. #restinpeaceJack

What I would like to note is that my smoke detector, no less than 6 feet away with good new batteries in it, did not go off.

If you've ever been here while I cook, you have heard it go off.

You boil water. It alarms.

You turn on the oven. No need to even put food in it. It alarms.

You make french toast on a griddle. It alarms.

You have a fire in the kitchen. It apparently does NOT alarm.

Good to know I guess?

When it's actually something important, like let's say fire. No alarm.

I was thinking about this while I attempted to remove the charred mess from my builder grade countertops that already are on the struggle bus.

I thought about how often I react to things that aren't really a big deal.

Like Peanut changing shoes FOUR times before leaving this morning.

There was loud drama ("oh my gosh.......I don't like these..........this doesn't match...........this one doesn't fit right.........") - I felt tempted to engage but then remembered, Peanut is capable of putting on shoes.

"I'm confident you can solve this problem. I'm setting a timer for 10 min because that's when we need to be outside to wait for your ride."

Purely by removing myself from the room, I did not feed the drama.

I sent the message that Peanut is capable. So Peanut will believe that about herself.

Smoke Alarm off.

Mama Warriors, I firmly believe by turning off the alarm about all the things that aren't ours to carry - we can raise a generation of children who are problem solvers.

They don't need alarms about boiling water or turning on the oven.

We make space for the alarms about the fires.

When it's an issue of heart or character - then we can sound the alarm.

Because CONNECTION always comes before correction.

We can correct in times of fire if we have made space for connection in ALL the other moments.

If we've turned off the alarms.