It's all about Perspective

So many days I let stupid little things suck the joy right out of me right from the get go. I can feel it happening, my demands and sighs getting louder, my tolerance for shenanigans lowering and my eye rolling out of annoyance becoming more frequent.. geesh- who is this ornery old lady?! I let myself get wrapped up in the crazy morning routines of getting 3 kids ready for school, packing lunches and snacks and getting homework IN the bags along with breakfasts for 5 and breastfeeding the baby and now snow gear.. ugh.

There are plenty of people that would look at just our morning demands and give me a get out of jail free card for being ornery but it doesn't have to be that way. I can choose to be more joyful, tolerant, patient and loving towards the world in the morning and all day if I would just change my perspective.

I wake up thinking of all I need to do and what I expect of the kids in a pretty short amount of time and all of the ways that will probably go wrong even with my best intentions. Those days that I hop out of bed going a million miles an hour are the ones that I have to change my perspective on the things that I think are important, I have 2 girls that have to be woken with very gentle hands and voices or the day is pretty much shot. Because they are like waking hibernating bears I have to take my time waking them, dressing them, and gently reminding them of morning routines. I have to change from organized, on-time, get-stuff-done Mom to laid back, coddling, winging it Mom! Some mornings my girls' hair is laughable and their outfits look like I dressed them in the dark and they all had toast and honey for breakfast.. but we are all happy :)

A family picture taken in the afternoon with plenty of time to wake up and get happy :)

It's easy to let situations and surroundings dictate our perspective on life and while I too am totally guilty of this I need to make it as easy as choosing a better attitude, regardless of whats going on around me. I know I will never be one of those people who just walks around smiling just because I'm breathing but I can choose to smile when I make eye contact... and not avoid eye contact so I don't have to start a conversation in the grocery store- guilty as charged!!

So each day I will do my best to chose joy from the get go, it may be hard to find but I wake up to 6 really good reasons to look high and low! I will do my best to move the happiness gauge from someone pissed in my cheerios... which is a very real possibility in this house, to farting rainbows- that's always a good goal, right?!