Just one word: Letitgo.

I like things to be a certain way, but sometimes my family does not like them the same way or thinks that it's no big deal if they aren't a certain way.  I'm not gonna lie, this makes me cringe and sometimes extremely frustrated. 

There are things, however, that lately I have been trying to give myself (and those unforunate to be around me at those moments) permission to "letitgo" or: Let It Go said really fast so it becomes one word.  I've found that mostly this applies to my 4 year old and my husband. 

Example:  my husband likes to use our nice towels to dry his car off with when he washes it or he takes them to the gym and they end up in his gym bag for a couple hours until he makes it home to let them hang out and dry properly.  The old me would grit my teeth and explain to him that he should not do these things.  The new, "letitgo" me, is letting go and letting him take the towels wherever he wants and do whatever he wants to do with them.  He does have an undivided one half interest in them anyway, according to Texas community property law...but that's not why I "letitgo".  I realized that this was just an area of unneeded stress in my life.  I mean, really, who cares if some towels get ruined??  It's not like I can't go to the store and buy new ones to replace them (the exact same ones too).  My husband knows this too, and knows that if they get ruined, then I will be buying new ones.  So, why worry??

An example with my 4 year old, Jackson, would be one from today.  It rained really hard today and we were outside after and he was riding his bike.  He decided that he wanted to go barefoot and dig in the mud.  For a split second (okay, maybe 5 split seconds), I was going to tell him not to get in the mud and get all muddy because we had managed to go through the whole day without getting filthy and we might actually make it a day without needing a bath or needing to get hosed down outside before stepping foot in the house.  Instead, I paused, breathed, and "letitgo".  He had fun for atleast 45 minutes by himself playing and digging in the mud and flinging the dirt everywhichway.  He is a boy, afterall, I reminded myself.  And it's only mud.  It washes off.

Probably the best example of my "letitgo" change was when I finally decided (after years) to let Jackson mix the play dough colors.  I know.  It makes me cringe to think about it still, but it's Play dough.  It's okay.  It's okay to have 8 jars of playdough but the only color in every jar is a grayish brown mix of all the colors together.  It's okay.  They sell more playdough at the store and he actually still likes playing with it even though he can only make gray playdough men and grey playdough turtles or balls.  I will leave it to his teachers at school to keep their playdough separated and nice.  At home, we now can mix the colors.  And have.

"Letitgo" truly is freeing.  If you haven't experienced something like this, then I highly recommend it.  It will make not only your life a little less stressful, but it will really bless your family members or those that you are choosing to "letitgo".  You won't feel as if you are the only one who cares about keeping things nice or a certain way and they won't feel that you constantly nag them about silly things (silly to them at least).