The other day, I expressed my frustrations, badly. Once I felt calmer, I tried to explain my frustration to my older son. I felt trapped, stuck, and angry about it. He made a good rebuttal: Appreciate where you are.

I do, most of the time. There are definitely things I would like to change, but even if I could, does it need to be right now? The short answer is no. The long answer is no, but I wish I could, and I have a distinct lack of patience.

The unfortunate part of my lack of patience is that it is part of the source of my frustration. There are other parts to it, too, but my own lack of patience is probably the only part I can control.

I can’t make my mother’s estate settle faster. I can’t make my ex be fair. It leaves me with very few variables I can change, and changing myself isn’t easy either.

I am reading an interesting book on women’s finance, “Financial Feminist” by Tori Dunlop. The author focuses less on budgeting every penny, and more on deciding what is important, and what isn’t as important.

Around the same time, my younger son was practicing a viola piece for the middle school concert. He got badly stuck on one of the lines, which played a difficult sequence. His immediate reaction was frustration. So we problem solved. He kept going through the piece, and we agreed he would have his teacher help him during his upcoming lesson.

My problem solving for myself isn’t as simple. But I’m trying.