Changing the World, One Monday at a Time
Aw crap.
Yesterday, in one of my spirited rants about the evils of all things negative, I made this promise that I would report back on Mondays to let you know how that was going. And now, today is Monday. And I am supposed to report on how, in the last 24 hours, I have started to change the world.
As if Monday's weren't bad enough! Dooh! Negative.
CONFESSION TIME: I'm not always going to be positive. And there are days where this personal happy crusade if going to get old. But, on the other hand, it's kinda cool, too. Think about it. How many of us go through the day just to get to the end of it so we can start again? How is that living?
So, that's what I stopped doing in the last 24 hours. I stopped waiting for the end of the day and made sure I was present in everything I did. In list form, here's what happened.
1. I made the kidlets turn off the screens for five consecutive hours. On a weekend. They totally freaked out. At first. And then kidlet #1 pulled out the k*nex sets and created a space station along with an entire story of how the energy was stored and what would and wouldn't work if the parts were damaged. He made it so that it would slide up and down, in case they ever needed to land on a planet for repairs. Kidlet #2, in typical #2 fashion, took a nap. When he woke up, he played with the snap circuit set he got for his birthday and learned a magic trick.
2. I didn't yell at my kids. When I needed them to do something, I got up, went to them, asked them to do what I needed done and... THEY DID IT!
3. I wrote five blog posts... in one day.
4. I made all three meals from scratch and did (almost) all the dishes without complaining about it.
5. Kidlet #1 got his weekly report done and instead of hovering over him while he did it, I decided that it was time for him to take responsibility to do it on his own and while it wasn't what I would have liked to see him do, it was good enough. And I was okay with it.
6. And at the end of the day, I was kinda sad that the kidlets had to go to bed. I realized that even though I was engaged with the day, time is slipping by me. That there is now one day less that they are my "little boys" and the day when they will go out into the world is one day closer. And I realized that, while I can't control what happens in the world, I can control the postitivity in my home.
CONFESSION TIME #2: I did get mad once. I made the mistake of letting the outside into my protective bubble and researched the news that the Indiana Senate passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act which basically opens the door for individuals to discriminate and then use their faith as the excuse. It was not pretty.
But I realized that you can be happy without being apathetic. You can be outraged by injustice without hating an entire group and blaming them for the action. You can find peace without burying your head in the sand and pretending that bad things don't happen. And there is something liberating in that.
And I realized that it's March and we have fresh snow on the ground. Here's what I have to say to that:
Until next week! Find out how you can be a difference maker in your life or someone elses!
