{"id":28019,"date":"2015-09-28T06:56:34","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T10:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/?p=28019"},"modified":"2021-02-12T10:25:43","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T15:25:43","slug":"choosing-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/choosing-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good Monday morning! I hope you all had a great weekend. I usually get excited to hop on here and share our weekend antics, but this weekend rolled by under the radar. David worked all weekend and the rain never ceased, so it was just the girls and me hanging out. Though it means there aren’t many stories or pictures to share, it was quite nice.<\/p>\n

We caught up on laundry, decorated for fall, stayed in jammies for hours more than we should have, built castles from magnatiles and made a proper mess in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

\"sweet<\/a><\/p>\n

It was quite relaxing over all and in its own way, refreshing. Though being tucked inside all day with a four year old and 16 month old is far from relaxing, the weekend brought me a lot of joy.<\/p>\n

In fact, it had me thinking (uh-oh, introspective on Monday? Here we go….)<\/p>\n

Last week a friend of mine asked me if I’m actually as happy all the time as I seem to be. Bold question. It stopped me for a second, then made me giggle because I’m sure if she would have asked David he would get a good chuckle, as the poor man definitely sees me at my wits-end moments.<\/p>\n

But as I continued thinking about it, I concluded that yes, I really am a pretty happy person and I kept rolling over that in my head. Why? Why I am so happy?<\/p>\n

Of course, the obvious is that I have my health, a hard-working, loyal husband, two healthy girls, a solid roof over my head and good food on my table. Honestly, that’s enough right there for a lifetime of gratitude. I am highly aware of that.<\/p>\n

Still, I think a lot of my joy comes from my willingness to see the good and focus on that. I have an odd quality that I’ve had as long as I can remember of purposely focusing on what is good in my life at that moment.<\/p>\n

\"Be<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s strange enough that I have a vivid memory of being NINE (9) years old and thinking wow, I’ll never be a single-digit age again, I better really enjoy this<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t make that up.<\/p>\n

From there, it’s followed me from each stage of life. Innately I’ve focused on the positive on each life phase, rather than the negative despite every age\/stage having pluses and minuses. In terms of where I am now, I am aware of the negatives. I have little time to myself. David works odd, sometimes crazy hours. I don’t get to catch up with friends as often as I’d like. We can’t just pick up and go do things. There is always laundry to do, lists to catch up on, bills to pay and babies (they’ll always be my babies) that need something<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But all of these pale in comparison to the joy I feel. The joy of being loved and needed so much. The satisfaction of running the household. The memories I am blessed to making to tuck away before life speeds me through to the next phase.<\/p>\n

So I remind myself I can focus on the mess (because goodness knows there is plenty of that to go around),<\/p>\n

\"motherhood<\/a><\/p>\n

or I can focus on the memories.<\/p>\n

\"motherhood\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And 95% of the time, the memories win, leaving me sitting in a pile of ripped pieces of paper masquerading as “salad” with a goofy grin on my face.<\/p>\n

So my message to you on this Monday is to seek the joy and choose it. Wherever you are- what is the good? Find it, grab onto it and let it carry you through.<\/p>\n

Because at the very least, it beats the heck out of focusing on the negative.<\/p>\n

Now go kick Monday’s booty!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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