A Day Like Today

On a day like today, when my stores of patience are at a monthly low, when I am feeling slightly defeated about the child who conned me into staying home from school because she had a stomachache (and then later threw such a hairy fit about going in late that I eventually gave in and just let her stay), when I am questioning my motherly kindness after a different child's hour-long crying session about having to pare down her stuffed animal collection to a paltry 30 items, when it took me almost all day to get to the remainder of dirty dishes leftover from a large family party, when my hair is in the same sloppy ponytail I threw it into the first thing this morning, when I am coming to understand why on earth I grind my teeth so badly in my sleep that I get to wear an incredibly attractive night guard to bed, when I fed the kids instant oatmeal for dinner because I didn't have it in me to make anything else, I need to remember messages like this:

"Let the sunshine into your [life]. Don't be hard on yourself, and don't let other people be hard on you, either. Give yoursel[f] credit for the good things you do. If you make a mistake, give yourself credit for trying. Laugh a lot. Catch yourself singing...If you only do half of what you wanted to do, or only do it half as well as you'd like, pat yourself on half your back. But lighten up!"
                                                                                               
                                                                                                       ~Cheiko N. Okazaki

Somehow it's so much easier for me to focus on my failures rather than my successes, so it's time to reprogram my brain, and focus on the fact that I did not lose my temper once during the multiple-child fit-having today. That I washed and dried five loads of laundry today. That I averaged just under ten minutes a mile on my 3.1 mile run today. That I uploaded new pictures onto the computer, blogged, swept, showered, vacuumed, took the trash out, did two puzzles with Alexa, and loved on Spencer, and brushed my teeth after every meal. That I can recognize all of the wonderful things in my life.

Here's to small victories. Consider half my back patted.