In 1961 the Shirelles were really onto something when they sang, “Mama said there’ll be days like this.”  The song’s immediate skyrocket up the Billboard charts clearly showed people could relate to the lyrics.  The one thing Mama failed to mention is sometimes days like this are consecutively strung together for weeks on end.  Yep, that is right – my family has hit a stroke of bad luck.  I can’t pinpoint the moment it started, but it seemed to coincide with the beginning of summer.  I won’t bore you with the details.   We have all been there.  I’m just hopeful the end is near.  As one of my favorite bloggers, https://dancingintherainaoifsx.wordpress.com/ reminded me, sometimes it’s good when everything falls apart, because it gives you the opportunity to put the pieces back exactly the way you want them to be.  How true!  This has become my mantra for the last few weeks.

I do need to give my kids credit for being complete troopers through the rollercoaster we call life.  I spent days organizing and planning what I believed my kids would deem the perfect summer – days filled with swimming, t-ball, trips to the zoo, specialty camps, ice cream runs, etc.  Well, we are over two-week in and we have hardly gotten to anything on the list.  To make matters worse, we had to cancel our plans for a week of family fun including a water park visit and an up north excursion for the 4th.

Because life has been so chaotic, I wanted to do something special to add at least some fun to the kids day and thank them for their recent go with the flow attitudes.  The only caveat is that we have been running around like crazy trying to manage the bad luck that we have little to no time to time to plan anything.  After the kids went to bed, I went to the basement to see what I had on hand.  My eyes immediately locked on a picnic basket.  It took  a total of 5 minutes to pack a picnic lunch for the kids and the nanny – who has been an extension of my right arm through all of this.

I completely went against my norm and included nothing homemade in the basket.  I simply reached into my emergency stash and put together a lunch of already made treats, including:  Smuckers Uncrustable Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, Veggie Straws, Naked Juice and finished it off with Billy Madison’s favorite – Snack Packs.  I also reused some baskets and and leftover silverware from the https://theartinpartyplanning.com/2015/06/11/baseball-birthday-party/ for a little extra fun!

As luck our luck would have it, it rained!  I know I am starting to sound like a broken record, but it’s true – in the world of entertaining, things rarely happen as planned.  I came home from work to the kids excitedly sharing stories of their surprise picnic lunch.  To the kids the rain seemed to add an extra element of fun to the picnic. They ate in the garage and watched the rain.  They got fresh air and a lesson in mother nature.  All in all, I would call it a win!

While I’m not quite ready to declare a comeback over our recent streak of bad luck, I am hopeful the end is near.  Until then, I am looking for little wins and things to brighten the otherwise rainy days 🙂  I can’t wait until our stroke of good luck hits!