Pollyanna Worthy Picnic

It was the perfect day. Perfect temperature. Perfect park. Perfect husband. Perfect children. Perfect picnic.

And no ants. Or any other bugs. Or wind to blow the blanket around. Or crying children. Or uneatable food.

At least that was how I envisioned the picnic lunch I preparing for my family. Oh, and I was the perfect mother.

I’m sure by now your smirking. You know that on this here earth perfect just doesn’t exist. Especially when you combine toddlers, finger food, and the great outdoors.

I could describe the food fiasco - how the mile high chocolate cake was actually more like a cement brownie. Or how I didn’t exactly cook the fried chicken all the way though. Or maybe how my homemade lemonade was missing something….yeah, the sugar.

And of course it rained. But not before one child threw up in the car on the way to the park, another one ran straight to the park just to fall off the monkey bars, and of course the bugs.

High ideals. That’s my problem. Oh, and watching movies like Pollyanna.

If you haven’t seen Pollyanna I encourage you to. The main theme is to find gratitude in every situation and to focus on the goodness of God. Oh, and it has one of the best picnic scenes ever recorded.

I tried to reproduce that picnic for my family.

However, I ran into a couple of problems:

Pollyanna is fiction. I live in the real world.

Pollyanna’s aunt didn’t single handedly make the picnic lunch with toddlers running around her ankles all day . No, in fact she didn’t do anything except set the menu and show up. The house staff did all the work.

Despite everything my children and husband still talk about that picnic with laughter and fond memories. I guess it’s true about adversity building close relationships.