The Perks to Staying Positive
Last week was a doozy.
David left for a work trip on Monday. It was the longest he would be away since he started traveling for work, and I was on mommy duty all week long. On Tuesday I woke up feeling blah. I took a day to rest and woke up Wednesday with a new attitude. I kept Finn home that day because it had snowed and I didn't feel like driving with two babies.
Later that evening my in-laws came over with dinner and took some of the load off. But after dinner, our power went out from the storm and didn't come back on until Friday afternoon.
Overwhelmed is an understatement. I packed up the kids and kissed my poor Juneau and we all headed back to my in-laws for a slumber party. (Thank goodness for them!!!) We were initially told our power would be back midday on Thursday, but I waited and waited and waited until another update told us we'd be waiting until Sunday!
We spent Thursday night at my in-laws as well. David was coming back Friday evening and the thought of that gave me some relief. However, the stress of managing two babies, a lonely dog, a cold house, and all that goes with it was starting to get to me.
The good news is, thanks to a kind and understanding lady named Lisa who works for the power company, our electricity returned on Friday afternoon. (The whole story is that I was calling and complaining to the wrong people the whole time. David called and got Lisa on the other end and told her of the entire situation - including the complete loss of my frozen breast milk stash - and she got things to happen! THANK YOU LISA!)
I was never so happy to be home with my entire family in a warm house as I was that Friday. Our internet didn't return until late Saturday, but that's another story.
ANYWAY, the point in me telling this story is this - a year ago, I would've let this situation gut me. I would've sank into a deep, dark hole for weeks feeling sorry for myself. I knew this whole situation was the universe testing me. I promised myself that I would be intentional about my outlook and perspective, and I kept remind myself that things could be worse.
- My in-laws are so gracious and let us crash there (and would've continued to let us crash there) for as long as we needed.
- We were fed, warm, and had a place to sleep.
- We have a house, regardless of if the power is on, we actually own a house! And with that comes silly issues like losing your electricity. But we have a house to lose electricity in!
- Finn could go to daycare and have slumber parties at his grandparents. He was in heaven!
- I'm not pumping much, so I didn't have to worry about where I would have to plug my pump in to feed Reese.
- I'll be playing catch up with work all week, but everything is back to normal now.
My point is, staying positive and seeing the good in all that happened in spite of a really annoying situation helped me endlessly. I'm realizing that your perspective is truly a choice. You can choose to see the bad or you can choose to see the good.
I always thought I was just a 'glass half empty' kind of person, but I don't want to see things that way. In fact, usually that perspective just makes a shitty situation even more shitty.
So I challenge you to shift your perspective today. Is there something that you've been negative about? Is there another way you can look at that situation to make you realize maybe it's not so bad after all? It's a game-changer people, and now it's Monday again and I'm ready to go!
