My 'Things' for the day

I have goals, you know. Just today my goal was to get up and get completely 'ready' before I headed downstairs for the day. Usually I get up and hang out downstairs for about an hour before I head back upstairs to get dressed, brush my teeth, and put my contacts in. Sometimes it takes until lunchtime to get all of those things done. Sometimes I just get one of those done in an hour's time. But today, hold on to your hat, today I got them all done before I came downstairs. The boys wanted to know where I was going...

But I do have goals each day. This little morsel is something that I paid about $2,000 cash to my counselor to pick up on. But actually, it was one of the best investments in my, in our, life. I think everyone could benefit from a good counselor. I stray...

At one point of the counseling game, the counselor asked me what a good day looked like. After I sat in total silence for a while, I confessed that I truly had no idea. That week I thought and thought about what I wanted a good day to look like. This is what I came up with:

- pray each day, at some point, nothing fancy, just talk to God
- fully engage each one of my children individually at least once a day - eye-to-eye contact
- love my husband and allow myself to be loved by him
- not procrastinate
- laugh, out loud, with total abandon

Okay, so it sounds simple, but it's not always so simple. However, having this list of 'my things' is a lifesaver. It helps me during good days and it helps me during bad days. When a day is great, I still have to stop and consider what is really important to me and make sure that the day wasn't just great because of trivial things. When a day is crappy, I can know that maybe, just maybe the day really isn't as crappy as I think if I can get 'my things' in. I can be in a completely bad mood and know that I did well for the day. It wasn't a lost cause, I made a difference just for today. And that is a pretty darn good feeling.