Perspective is an amazing thing.

As I said in a previous post, I broke my toe on Friday (as I sit here typing, it is now Monday). On Saturday, I had two kids with hair appointments at two very different times. My oldest had to be picked for her lunch break and then dropped back off at school (side note - she's enrolled at the local cosmetology school and she was the one doing the haircuts for the two kids mentioned earlier!). Add to this some grocery items that needed picked up, a concert performance that my youngest daughter, Janessa, and I were doing Saturday night . . . it was a busy day and that, combined with the pain in my toe, was making me one very cranky mommy. And I wallowed in my crankiness! After all, I didn't deserve the broken toe. Hubby got to go golfing and have fun with friends while I ran kids from one thing to the next and did laundry and ran to pick up stuff for dinner . . . pity party in full swing folks!

At a little after 3:30 p.m. I was leaving the house - yet again - to go pick my eldest up when her day was over. As I pulled out of the driveway, my youngest daughter, who was spending time hanging out with a friend, called me on my cell phone. I actually didn't know it was her because I didn't recognize the number on my caller I.D. Normally, I wouldn't have answered a call from a number I didn't know. It's a good thing I made an exception.

Janessa told me, "Mom, I'm not sure what time Zach will be able to get me home."

"Why?" was my very exasperated response.

"'Cuz we were just in an accident and we've gotta wait for the cops and the tow truck and stuff."

Of course I went to the most important question: "Are you guys all right? Is anyone hurt?"

"We're fine. The car rolled but we're okay." She went on to tell me that she had fallen asleep due to the fact that she and this same young man had gotten up at 4 a.m. to go turkey hunting. According to what Zach told my daughter - she slept through the accident, believe it or not! - he got a little drowsy himself and when the car drifted toward a ditch, he over-corrected, jerking the wheel and causing the car to head toward the other ditch where it rolled over, coming to rest on the driver side door. Zach had to wake Janessa up after the accident to get her out of the car. She had a headache afterwards. She might have bumped her head or it could have been stress from the whole thing. Who knows! Both kids are fine.

After that phone call, I got in touch with my husband who was just finishing up his golf game. He got in touch with our daugther and found that the accident site was on his way home!

It was a long day with many demands on my time, my pain tolerance, and my stamina. But I suddenly didn't mind. A trip to the grocery store went from a nuisance to an opportunity to be thankful that I STILL have four healthy children with healthy appetites. The fact that I had run my darling youngest daughter in to get her hair trimmed just that morning became a privilege, not a bother. All the things I had been whining to myself about ceased to matter and my pity party came screaming to an end.

I still have four teenagers living in my house and they will still get lippy. They will leave their dirty clothes on the floor, cop an attitude, forget to give me important messages, and be a little thoughtless from time to time. They are teenagers after all! But the scare of that phone call on Saturday has left me with an overwhelming sense of gratitude that I have been blessed with four healthy, normal kids. When I think of how much worse Saturday could have been . . . nope, not going there 'cuz those thoughts aren't pretty!