Finding Joy in Everyday Life

I have been struggling a lot lately with feelings of insecurity. I look at others and see what great mothers they are and feel like they are better at it than I am. I see other women who have babies much younger than Vanessa and the women are much skinnier than I am or they are toothpicks and have six kids. Or there are women who have more, much younger kids whose houses are always spotless and mine constantly looks like a bomb went off in it. And there are soooo many women who go through so many trials and handle these things so much better than I do. Why have I been feeling this way so much lately? I'm not sure, other than the fact that I compare myself to others way too much! I know that I am comparing their strengths to my weaknesses and faults. I know that no one has a perfect life and we all have our weaknesses and trials, I just wish I could handle mine (for lack of a better word) more graceful then I do. I know that I will never be someone else. I am me, and that's all I can be. Not that I have to settle for the me I am, I want to be the best me I can be and that's all I can do.

Today while I was vacuuming and Vanessa was sitting on my vacuum cord riding it like a horse, yeehaw and all included, I realized that I could either get frustrated because it was going to take me an extra five minutes to finish my vacuuming or I could do what she was doing and find joy and happiness in the simple things. I chose joy and happiness. I played with her with the cord for a bit and about two minutes later she was bored and I was able to complete my chore. I started thinking, 'why do I do this to myself'? 'why do I choose to stress about simple things when I can be happy with these small things'? When one word really stood out to me, CHOOSE! I choose to react the way I do. We can't always control what happens to us because we definitely can't control others choices. We can't control what's going to happen in our day or what 'curveball' is going be thrown our way in life but we can choose how we react to it. We can either find the bad and become stressed or we can look at all the wonderful things we have in our lives and choose to be grateful and content with what we have. That's my new goal! I want to recognize at least one thing I have to be grateful for each day. I also want to find joy and happiness in everything I do each day, including the cleaning I do over and over again. I'm so grateful I have the house I do to clean every day!