A Successful Failure

I try to be successful. I really do! But of lately I feel like the only thing I have been successful at is failing. Take today for instance. I had a goal to get my house clean, finish the laundry, and fly a kite. Why a kite you might ask? Why for scouts of course! I better back up and explain... I am the den leader to 6 very active and fun little 8 year old boys that I adore. I have been trying all week to get scouts done. I tried on Wednesay, but FAILED! Wednesday was irrigation and I was the only one home to take care of it. I rushed home from ShowLow to find the main culvert was plugged up and had to be taken care of. What could I do? I rolled up my sleeves of my nice city clothes and got down on my belly and started scooping all the junk out of the culvert. It was gross, but it HAD to be done! I looked at the clock and realized that I had scouts in 10 minutes. I can do this, I can do this! I ran home to unload my groceries and got all the things ready for our kites, which I had no idea how to make. On the way to the church I drove by the culvert just to check..... dang. It was full again and this time it was flooding over the ditch bank and close to the trailer. UGH! I called my other scout leaders to let them know I would be late and guess what.... they weren't in town yet. DOUBLE UGH! To make a long story short, I had to reschedule scouts. They were so sad, but I promised them we'd make kites on Friday. So here it is today. I have never made a kite by myself, so I googled it and found some really cool kites to make. How hard can it be, right? I stuck with the easiest, no fail kite. After pouring over the computer to make sure I knew EXACTLY how it was done, I went downstairs and got to work. I cut my sticks. I taped them together for the main frame. I cut my kite out of a garbage bag and taped the edges down just as the computer showed me. I made a tail out of the scraps of plastic and attachted my string. I was ready! Now the only problem is there was not wind. So I sat outside with Karly and waited. And waited. What? No wind? Unheard of! Finally there was a faint breeze to try out the kite. I let out my string and threw the kite in the air, but the kite did not fly. I tried again and again, only to fail time after time. After many attempts I decided to research a little more and see what happened. Back to the computer I went. Pretty soon I looked at the clock and realized I had to leave for scouts. Still no closer to making a great kite. I loaded up Karly and away we went. Jason, my brother, was nice enough to come and help out. So the two of us helped cut, tape, trace, and everything else to make these kites. These boys were so excited to fly kites! Finally it was time. We all went outside and one by one they threw their kites up in the air only to see them fall down. They really wanted to fly, but just couldn't! After many failed attempts I apologized profusely for my bad kite making skills and offered them chocolate rolls as a peace treaty. Please don't hate me, please come back next week! So here I sit pondering my day. My laundry still hasn't been done. My house is still a work in progress, and I did not fly a kite. Fail, FAil, FAIL! But I know I'm not a complete failure. I did manage to have scouts, and thy did have fun working on their non flying kites. I know where to locate easy kite instructions that the normal joe smo could probably whip out. My kitchen is the only clean room in the house, but it's a start! And the laundry.. well, it's technically never done. I think I'll celebrate my success with Mr. G's ice cream. Baby steps, baby steps.....