I’ve decided I’m not going to beat myself up if I don’t post here every day, so long as I keep to my word with finding things that are positive during the days, keeping the journal isn’t an absolute necessity, and getting mad at myself for not keeping up with it — kinda counterproductive to the whole “seek joy” “be joyful” aspect of what I’m trying to do.

It has been a rough few days, sickness is still around on and off, and things are generally messed up overall with the weather being constantly rainy, and my car being on the fritz, but I keep reminding myself that slowly and steady things are getting better; and other cliche’s such as “Rome wasn’t built in a day”.

I think a lot of frustration comes from the fact that we have a society that greatly moves towards “instant gratification” and when things don’t just SWITCH we get impatient. So, I remind myself that things aren’t worth getting mad about when energy can be much better spent doing things which are worthwhile, like teaching my son to bake.

I’ve been a bit under the weather the past few days so my computer time has been a bit lapsed. So, here are the last few days joyful things.

Thankful Thursday
I’m thankful for the support of my family and friends, that will continue. They help out when things are rough, even when they’re not always feeling so great themselves I can call on them.
I’m thankful we have a house, a safe place to live and amenities such as water and electricity. Kore and I joked the other day that it would be nice to have a cabin out in the woods away from civilization, but we have it already after a fashion. Even though our house is in a neighborhood we’re surrounded by forest and trees so we may as well be out in the middle of nowhere. We have nice neighbors but we rarely actually see them because even if we’re working in the yard we’re secluded, which is actually nice. I lived quite a bit of my life without any privacy at all so having it now is a great comfort.

Friday
I haven’t come up with a nifty name for Friday yet, maybe it’ll just be ‘day off’ or something like that, because I’m going to be helping out my former employer for a few hours every Friday while they have their truck delivery.
Friday was a friendly day though. I had a good time at work which helped me to ignore the soreness that standing on my feet was giving me. Also we had company and got to play the first round of a nifty game that our friend David is running for us. I’m getting to play a character I’ve wanted to play for quite some time, and David also bought us food because he knows our financial situation and also what it’s like to not have food. He was recalling the several times when he was in need of assistance we fed him or let him camp out with us and wanted to repay that so he bought food and said he will also bring food next week.

Yes, this should have been posted yesterday but things got away from me a little bit. I did have some good luck because I was able to buy groceries that we need and stay within budget: $50.89 out of $60, so hopefully this means we’ll be able to get hubbie’s car’s oil changed and the a/c topped up.

So, my wishes are that we can sort things out to do that because it’s been too long already, and that the plagues that have been rampaging through our household dissipate.

I wonder how many more alliterative names I can come up with for the days of the week. Wishful Wednesday? I’m not sure.

Anyway, today has been a bit of a rough one, my poor munchkin isn’t feeling very well, and has been very snuggly and crotchety alternately, and I wish there was more that I could do for him, but he seems content right now to drive cars on one of our video games and change their radio stations and things like that, so that’s something.

In other news I’m excited because not only did I win $5 on the lotto earlier in the week but I’m going to be helping out my former boss a couple of days a week for a few hours so that she can make up her grocery orders and unload the truck deliveries, it’ll be in the middle of the day and only for a few hours at a time once or twice a week so it should be okay for my FMS. She was so worried about me that was sweet, and I had felt awful about leaving them in the lurch so this is a good compromise for both of us. They don’t have to hire and train a new person just for two short shifts, and I can have a little bit of time out of the house without overdoing myself.

The other nifty thing that happened today is that I’ve won tickets to see Star Trek! The new movie that’s out right now. I entered a contest through IZEA and I won! That’s really cool. I’m very excited. I have already seen the movie, thanks to the generosity of Kore watching the munchkin so that my hubbie and I could go, so I’m going to take her as a thank you for that.

I felt so bad that she didn’t see the movie she volunteered to look after the poorly munchkin so hubbie and I could go yesterday while we could get in at the cheap matinee showing our theater does during midweek. So, I’m going to see about taking her.

I’ve decided that I’m going to try and theme each day to help me keep up with things, so Monday is things which mean a lot to me.

It goes without saying, probably, that my family mean a lot to me. My husband is the love of my life, he’s constantly encouraging and patient and extremely understanding. I also treasure that he is honest with me and tells me off when I need it. What I mean is that I can be ranting about some thing which has upset me or talking about something that happened with a friend and if he thinks I’m in the wrong he will tell me so instead of letting me go on. He’ll be, “Why are you upset that was a dumb thing to say/do?” or alternately, “You’re right honey, they were wrong, what can we do about it?”

My son is the apple of my eye, unfortunately the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree some times, so I’m learning a lot about myself raising him, and at the same time I enjoy being able to teach him about the universe. It’s really testing my brain trying to sort things out with him also. I have to remember that he’s only three and while he may be a smart kid there are also concept that he’s just not going to get until he’s older. It’s amazing seeing things for the first time with him and I’m grateful for the opportunity to teach him and to also be taught by him.

What’s brought meaning to your life?

Today already has been a test of my staying upbeat. I realize that staying upbeat and being joyful doesn’t mean that I should refuse myself the right to cry. Crying is a necessary part of emotional purging, the bad needs to get out I should just not dwell on it. I should resolve whatever it was that made me upset and then find ways to improve my mood thereafter, and that is what I’m doing.

1. The munchkin was very cute today in his learning to say Happy Mother’s Day?.
2. He has since said HMD to me three times.
3. I’ll be going out and doing something fun this evening and possibly tomorrow as well depending on how things are. Kore and I just have to decide what we’re going to do.
4. I will be going back to work one day a week. This will enable me to help out my former employer and alleviate some of the guilt I feel about that whole situation and also give me some “out of the house by myself” time.

I hope that all the mothers who are celebrating today are having a good time, and all the mothers who are not are also having a good time. Take joy in your children for they are your heart.

I see that I already have 13 subscribers to this blog. This makes me very happy to read. I had no idea things might take off so quickly. I’d love to hear from some of you as to what’s making you happy.

Spread the joy, begin the infection!

Share what’s making you happy!

I’m going to set up a meme of some sort — I know there’s already a “Thankful Thursday” and you can be I’m going to be participating in that, but I also think it would be nice to do a weekly meme. I’m debating either Monday or Wednesday, because Wednesday is “hump day” and Monday is the first day that a lot of people go back to work after their weekend so both those days are ones that I could see needing a little extra joy.

What do you guys think?

Today has been a pretty lazy day so far which is nice in it’s own way.
I’ve been catching up on a few of my other blogs, and watching my friend’s kids while they go to a movie.

Here are the thanks for today, so far. I’ll probably revisit this later on.

1. Nursing newborn kittens is squee. We’re also babysitting one for my Mum while she goes somewhere and he’s nestled in my lap as I’m typing and it’s just this awesome feeling.
2. The kids have been pretty well-behaved. They’re taking turns, they’re being polite. Plus this is getting to repay some of the favors their parents have done for us over the past year, so that’s nice.
3. The disability office called me today, a Saturday, to go over the first portion of my application. This was very surprising and hopefully is a good sign.
4. We won $5 on the lottery.

What’s making you happy today?

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

I saw this on Table for Five Mom Elizabeth’s twitter account.

It’s a neat way to send a thank you to your favorite Moms by generating an announcement that they’re “Mom of the Year”. So, go on spread the joy!.