Tuesday, March 13, 2012

A Shift

Last night with M was pretty difficult and brought up lots of worries for the future and reminders of what the girls are going through.  Today I tried to keep life simple and in the present.  Beautiful weather helped and we spent a lot of time outside playing and being together. My goal was normal.  I was too tired to handle anything else.

I tired to shift my focus today and try to remember to be "fun" mom and keep moving forward despite all the (excuse my language) crap.  In the spirit of an attempt to switch gears, here is a list of some great things that have happened lately:

1.  I threw both D and L awesome birthday parties.  We rented an indoor soccer field for D's birthday and a gaggle of boys played football for 1.5 hours and had a blast.  He had a great time.  For L's party, we had a dinosaur theme and from the decorations to the cake to the activities it was one of my best.  I love throwing parties and it was a blast.  He was so sweet with all of his cousins and friends.

2.  Interim grades for this quarter for the little kids were really good.  M's grades went up.  A was notified he's up for junior national honor society.  D is right on track for his usual first honors.

3.  Work is settling down a bit and I'm really liking the project I'm on.  It's still, well, "work," but I'm feeling better about how things are going and how much better it will be in the fall when L is in full day kindergarten.

4.  I've been reading some really good books.  It's a nice escape. Many of my favorite authors have new books coming out soon too and that's something to look forward to.

5.  I love my Nook.  I rock at Words with Friends...another good escape. 

6.  I came up with a new laundry system with the kids and I think its going to work.  Color-coded bins and and a little more responsibility on their end is hopefully going to take a few things off my shoulder.

7.  I don't think I've mentioned her before, but we have the best cat in the world.  She makes us all laugh and seems to instinctively know when I need an extra snuggle.

8.  The weather has been spectacular around here.  Everyone getting outside has been a good thing, especially the boys. 

9.  Last Friday while the girls were at the birthday party for KT, I took A and L on a herpetology event at a local regional park.  We trooped through the some vernal ponds, mud and woods and A found his elusive spotted salamander.  He had been asking for weeks about this program and I was glad we could go.  It was cold, wet and dark, but the boys had fun and I was glad to be able to do that for them.

10.  Baby H (S's new daughter) is getting baptized on Sunday.  It will be nice to have a family event celebrating this new, adorable little girl.

Things still pretty much suck (again sorry for the crass language).  I am trying to work hard to remember the good things going on around me.  I've felt lately that I'm stuck in such a dark place and exercises like this help me when things get truly out of control like last night.  Thanks to my blogging buddy Rachel for inspiring me to recognize the good when I'm stuck in the bad.

5 comments:

  1. I LOVE this list of happiness! You've done some wonderful things of late--I'm jealous of your mad skillz at Words with Friends (Jessie kicks my heiny all over the place) and your herpetology adventure. When there's so much crap (and, yes, it is crap) and sucking (and, yes it DOES suck) going on, sometimes it's nice to sit back and see there is some good too. That's why I do my sparklies list every night. :o)

    Oh, I went running/walking over in CW again today and thought of you and smiled. :o) I think it's going to be our new MWF thing. What a GORGEOUS place to be. You'll be back this way before you know it. :o)

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  2. I really like that rather than focus on the difficulties (which I know are IMMENSE), you took a moment to try to focus on things to be grateful for. Sometimes I make it a nightly habit to write a gratitude list for myself. It always helps me no matter how horrible the day has been.

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    1. Shortly after the accident I started a gratitude journal...maybe I should bust that sucker out and write a few things each day if I don't have time to do it here. Thanks!

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  3. I try to make myself do this periodically, particularly when I'm feeling like everything is bad. Hope it made you feel a little lighter :)

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  4. I did love your list of good things. It doesn't remove the suckage, but it was like finding little flowers springing up in the muddy field. Or something poetic like that.

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