I just had a really bad weekend. It started on Friday and it was one of those days where nothing seemed to go right. Work was annoying, people not listening and not doing things that they said they were going to. 

My lunch hour I tried to work on editing a chapter and ended up some inserting a three paragraph header onto every page. My 180 page story became almost 300 pages and was all messed up. 

It didn't get any better at home. My husband knocked over a glass of Powerade onto the tile floor. Shattered glass and sticky liquid all over the place. Freaking mess!

I took my dogs for a walk and as I tried to hold them still while another dog walker passed us my bigger dog lurched and sent me tumbling into the ditch. I went ass over teakettle down about 10 feet, jarring every bone. It had rained earlier so I was a muddy mess. 

I was so angry for the rest of the night and into Saturday. I had to mop all the floors and go over the living room several times because of the spill. My Bissell Crosswave didn't work so I had to use the old sponge mop which took three times as long. 

The thing is, when you spend a lot of time doing something repetitive and monotonous like mopping, you have time to think.

I realized that, yes, I had a bad day, but it could have been worse.

I lost half of a chapter. I could have lost the whole thing. Stuff got spilled, someone or one of the dogs could have been cut by the glass. I took a tumble, but I  could have broken something.

I was still angry so I decided that I needed a time out. I thought about something @MichaelS36 said in a correspondence. I had asked him a question regarding punishment and he told me that in a good relationship there shouldn't be punishment. He explained how he would correct tim if there was an issue that needed to be addressed. I responded that it sounded like a time out.

Parents often use time outs with their kids. I needed to use time out on myself. I knew if I stayed angry I'd end up arguing with my husband or my son. I  didn't want that. I was in a lot of pain, the fall jarred my knees which were already hurting from my arthritis. I had torn a calf muscle back in February and the fall aggravated that too. Pain causes me to lash out. 

So I finished mopping, put everything away and popped some ibuprofen. Then I worked on my story. By focusing on something positive I was able to calm down. I rewrote the half of the chapter that I lost and then wrote another chapter and a half. 

I'm still sore and battered from falling but I'm thankful that I wasn't seriously hurt and managed to hang on to both leashes and my dogs are safe too. I'm happy with my progress on the story. The floor is still not quite clean. I don't think it ever will be, but I'm ok with it. I had three days off of work, that's a plus. 

My time out for myself worked. I highly recommend it. We all need a break from ourselves once in a while.