Spiritual Attack? Or Just a Bad Day?

Today started wonderfully, with a terrific church service during which Mr. C. was exceedingly well behaved.

And then just like the proverbial excrement deflecting off the overhead cooling device, he lost his ever loving mind in the parking lot of Costco. We sat there a good 20 minutes, trying valiantly to talk him through his feelings, offering various rewards for getting through the store nicely, and finally settling for gritting our way through a miserable trip, being gaped at by the ill-mannered masses all the while.

The icing on the poo-cake was that somehow Q decided to direct his anger and disappointment with C straight at me. I get it, I do. You can't be mad at Chico, so you end up mad at whoever else is around. It still hurts though.

As I drove home feeling quite shattered, I started to wonder if maybe we were experience some kind of retribution for our church attendance this morning. The church Q grew up in teaches that he-who-lives-in-hades is always on the lookout for a Christian being too focused on God, too much on the right track and then he pounces. No sooner is your parched soul refreshed by the Word, than he stomps all over it again.

I guess that could be true. I don't know if I believe it in this case. I think sometimes bad days just happen, and sometimes they happen after a really good thing. Autism, of course, exponentially increases the odds of a good day turning bad without warning.

In the end, a consequence for Chico and a nap for everyone and all was well again. Chico and I even ventured out to JoAnn for some new fabric for Q's quilt (I decided on blue/grey after all), and he behaved so well he even earned himself a brand new rubber stamp. I still plan to make that quilt for Q, even if he was mad at me today. I'm sure he'll be mad at me again for the same non-reason in the future. Autism does that to a marriage.

At any rate, today was a good day to pull out my word for 2012.