Finding joy in the moment

It's one of those days, the type where I wake up and just feel a bit off kilter. Nothing is wrong, life is good but I'm feeling anxious and unsure. I can't make effective decisions and I don't know what to do with myself. I tend to put these days down to hormones, being a woman has it's downside.

It would be really easy to allow myself to wallow in it for the day and to be unhappy but that's not productive and can lead me into a downward spiral, so I always find the best thing to do is to choose joy and look for the good (or grace) in the small things.

You can be joyful without feeling externally happy. Joy is much deeper and writing from prison Paul said "I have spoken to you with great frankness; I take great pride in you. I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds" 2 Corinthians 7:4. and what a great example that is, nothing in my life is as bad as Paul experienced and yet he still speaks of joy at least 16 times in his letters.

Today I choose to be grateful and I have found grace in the following small things - 

• I woke at a good time and didn't have to rush to get the kids ready for school.
• The school run went well, no arguments with 6 kids in the car.
• I enjoyed my porridge and a well earned sit down.
• I am caught up with my social media work.
• All the ironing & washing is done and put away.
• The kids have nearly finished the weeks homework.
• I have a nice new Next top on which is super comfy.
• I picked up JJ on his own from school and we got to have a good chat.
• I just had the best cup of tea.
• Tonight I will go to bed in fresh sheets and that always makes me smile.
• My parents are still here and it is nice to dip in and out spending time with them.
• I get to spend snuggle time with both girls tonight as the boys will go out to scouts.

I'm linking this post up with Becky over at Lakes Single Mum for Reasons to be Cheerful. Click the link and head over to see what it is about....

You can call me Lucky Bit*h!

It struck me this afternoon that I really am one lucky bit*h and I am not massive into swearing but this needs some emphasis.  I am a lucky girl. A really lucky girl! You hear me?  LUCKY!

How many mums do you know who can say they feel they have the perfect balance with work and being at home with the kids?  I fall into that completely blessed category.

A day out at Chessington, thanks to saving Tesco vouchers!

I work in the office for 2 days a week from 8.30 - 5pm and I work from home for 2.5 hours per week.  So in total I do half time- 18.5 hours a week.  This is enough to earn us the money to go on holiday (UK holidays admittedly) and buy take aways, the odd night out and nice clothes.  We are not by any means flush, we can not afford to blow £150 on the theatre and have to think before spending large amounts on the house but we we get by, comfortably.

My life is a million miles away from my big earnings of pre-children but I am so much happier for it. I see blog posts and tweets from mums working 12/16 hour days, having problems with childcare letting them down, having to commute for an hour or two every day and I think Why? Do you really need all the money it brings?  If so, then of course you have to carry on but dh and I choose to simplify our life and forget our Caribbean holidays and flashy cars for a few years and to have time with our kids. You often hear that, those with the money to spend do not have the time and those with the time, don't have the money, but so what? We have love and loads of free stuff that we can do together.

My girls have now started afternoon nursery for 3 days a week.  One of these I work and the other two I have time to myself.  Today I did a charity shop drop, bought some shopping, got myself some lunch and went home and did some work with the music blaring (all in 3 hrs!).  It was superb, I could have done with another hour or two to myself but I must not get greedy.

Tomorrow I plan to exercise to my new DVD and then spend a couple of hours blogging, writing up some reviews I need to do and maybe pitching for a cybermummy sponsor.  It feels so decadent to have this time to myself.

What JJ thinks of Mummy!

My cup is half full - I have the best of both worlds; I get to lunch with friends, be an adult and eat cake when I am at work and I get to keep my home, cook meals for my family, play with the kids and meet mummy friends when I am home.  Not a boring moment.  I can honestly say I look forward to each day at the moment.  How amazing is it to be able to say that about your life?

I am not writing this with the intention of being flash and showing off what I have.  I am just being honest and wanting to say to people that if you do not like your lot - change it!  What can you do to make things different and more enjoyable?  Are you willing to give up the costa coffee every day and the expensive iPhone to have time at home with your family?  I was. and for me it worked!

I love my family of 5!

I went to an amazing conference at work a couple of weeks back and one of our keynote speakers was Dr Richard Wiseman and he is a Psychologist and one of his specialist areas is looking at the psychology of luck.  He basically gave firm research based evidence of something I already knew was true - that those who have a cup half full attitude and feel blessed are and count themselves as lucky.  You make your own luck.

He gave an example of a millionaire who described himself as one of the most unlucky men alive. This was because he had won the lottery, £4 million, h felt he was unlucky as he had to share the £8 million jackpot - that ia not unlucky that is ungrateful in my opinion!

So have a think about what you can do to feel just a little bit more blessed.  Wake up in the morning and repeat to yourself, nothing will stress me out today, I am lucky.  This was what I started doing back in 1998 and my positivity had increased bounds since then.

Have a wonderful weekend, I fully intend to.

Mich x

Reasons To Be Cheerful 1,2,3 - Every Friday, Come & Join In....

I am submitting this post as part of the BMB carnival being held over at Bringing up Charlie on Tuesday 15th February.  There is bound to be a good show, so go and take a look!

Tim set us the task to submit a post to him which tells you what we are passionate about and in fact I wrote a recent post about my passion to help others.  I try to help in any form I can, I do not claim to be great at it, I just try my best with what I have.  One of the ways people tell me I am helping them at the moment, is to help them look on the bright side of life.  Specifically in my new weekly link up - Reasons to be Cheerful 1,2,3.  I know there is a lot of cynicism in the blogging world and many people think that weekly link-ups, meme's (call them what you will) are just done to attract inlinks and move you up the ranks.  Yes that is a great little bonus but it really is not the motivator.  Read below and discover my motivation...
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I know that I am completely blessed in my life and that ultimately I am a lucky lady.  So I feel that in 2011 I have to remind myself of this on a regular basis. Also, when I feel thankful I tend to find it is a tonic for my soul and the positivity just oozes (great word) out of me. Result! The best medicine for a negative day is to remind yourself of what you are grateful for.

Some of you dear readers who have been round a while will know that every so often I do a post entitled Grace in Small Things and then I list why I am feeling grateful at that point. I first thought to myself that I would put more effort into this in 2011 and then I re-thought and wondered about starting a linky post that everyone could join in with each week. Not only do I love to feel thankful myself, I like to read about others being grateful too, lots of good feeling just makes my smile even wider!

What do you have to do?

I have decided to rename this weekly linky post, as 'Grace in Small Things' is predominately a faith based title as Grace is of course what Jesus extends to us without us deserving it at all but I know that many people do not share my Christian faith. I wanted to make this accessible to all so I have decided to rename it 'Reasons to be Cheerful 1,2,3'  and just ask that you do a short post listing 3 reasons why you are thankful at that point.

The reasons can be anything, the post does not have to be long and eloquent, it is not supposed to be something that becomes a battle for you to complete.  It is a short task that I guarantee will make you feel better for doing it.

Why Join in?

Do you know what I believe are two of the fundamental keys to happiness? One, is to choose to be happy and the other is to want what you already have!  Endless seeking of things, money, status, time or anything else will never fulfil you! This is where the gratitude comes in....

Have you ever watched the film Pollyanna?  It is marvellous, I would definitely recommend it.  It is about a little girl who looks on the bright side of everything. This is something I aspire to.  Here is an example of one of my thoughts today 'My car got pranged on Christmas Eve and now it has to go in to be fixed, what a pain' and the Pollyanna slant on that 'at least it was not written off and I still have a car!'.

So, when is the Linky Live?
 
I will do my 'Reasons to be Cheerful' post on a Thursday evening and post it about 10pm, the linky tool will be on that post.  You can link up any time that week. (I am posting late on a Thursday so that any of my overseas friends can join in on their Friday too).
 
Any Rules?

• No None!
• I would love to say you have to follow me and take my badge and jump through a hoop but the honesty is that this is something I want to do, as I will enjoy it and if you like my blog you'll follow anyway.
• However, it would be super fab if you fancy visiting and commenting on any other people in the linky list, as this will encourage them for next time. Encouragement has to be a close second to gratitude for making you feel good.

So that is it!  My new idea.  I commit to persevere with this for a full year.  I do hope you will join me on this journey....... My first post will be up Thursday night ready for anyone to link up with....