A friend of mine, Kate, writes about her small successes on her blog. It's an exercise that forces you to find triumphs in your daily life, no matter how big or small. Since I started staying home and left teaching, a lot of my days are the same and don't have a lot of "excitement". With teaching, it was easy to find successes every day. 2nd graders still love school and they lavish affection and compliments on their teacher. It's easy to feel good about yourself when you see that light go off in a child's head and you know they're getting it. Everyday with teaching is different and unpredictable. The successes are frequently there and they're obvious.
Being a stay at home mom is different. Yes, Landon is different everyday and does new things that always make me smile, but there's a lot of sameness to our days. That makes finding my successes harder, but I'm going to try...
1. Kris has had a cold for the past almost 2 weeks. I have warned him not to love on Landon (or me!) in fear that he'll get sick. One bout of RSV is all I can take with a baby! Thankfully, neither Landon nor I have gotten sick, and I think that's a big success!
2. Unfortunately, the sweet tooth that was created within me while I was pregnant has not disappeared. I have decided to embrace it and continue my weekly baking and trying new recipes. My goal has been to get away from the box and make things from scratch. I have *almost* perfected baking Rebecca's chocolate chip cookies and Melissa's peanut butter chocolate chip brownies. They are so yummy and at times I wish I never would've gotten my hands on those recipes! I'm working on more dinner recipes too, but the desserts are more fun!
3. Landon's 3 month pictures were today. I decided to use Target's Portrait Studio this time since we're on a budget and I liked their online deals. I was pretty happy with them, and I hope I like the quality of the pics once I pick them up. (I'll post pics when I get them.) The success here is that Landon did great! The stars were aligned and everything actually went how I wanted it to in my head. Even with the rain, we got there in plenty of time. I've discovered that no matter how much I want to be on time (and Kris is the same way), it's not always going to happen with a baby. I wanted Landon to wake up this morning around 7 and eat so that he would be hungry again right before our appointment and he did. I fed him and he was full and content the whole time we were trying to get him to pose and smile. I know he thought that the photographer and I were crazy!
4. Landon is still sleeping very well through the night, and I consider that a success! I don't think I really did anything, but I'm still proud!
This is a great and helpful exercise (thanks Kate!), and it reminds me that even though my days seem monotonous, there are little triumphs. It's good to focus on the positive and be proud of even the small things that we do. You should try it too!
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