Half Full

So, the other day I was having my favorite drink - MILK! - and I had a mini epiphany! I set the glass down and looked at it and thought, "Oh man, it's half empty already!" Then I thought, "Why would I think that? Why couldn't I have thought that it was half full!" So I started thinking about my life and the attitude I have on a day to day basis. I would like to think that I have a "half full" attitude more than a "half empty" one, but I have to admit that lately I think I've been having problems on that!

I know what a great life I have, and I'm certainly not discounting that. I think I just have to reevaluate things and start each day with a positive mindset. I noticed that the past few mornings I have woken up thinking, "Ugh. I have so much to do today!" What I think I need to do is wake up thinking, "I have this whole entire day to accomplish everything I want to!"

So, today I "get to"....... clean the bathroom, try and catch up on laundry, take the kids to swimming, soccer and voice, dejunk my kitchen drawers (don't you hate it when that 1 spatula keeps getting stuck so they won't close!), send out missionary emails, call around to try and find someone who can look at a tv that isn't working, reorganize that junk drawer that I can never find anything in, buy a new vacuum belt, vacuum (once I install the new belt!), decide what to fix for dinner, fix dinner.

That's about all I think I can tackle today, along with everything else that just seems to come up! But at least I have today and I do appreciate my life and I know that others have it much harder than I do. So in my gratitute journal today I am seriously going to think half full! I am grateful that I have a bathroom instead of some outhouse in the woods! And I am so glad that I can change clothes every day! I am happy that my kids have the opportunities they do to participate in sports and improve their talents! And I am supremely happy that I have carpet and vinyl instead of dirt on my floors!

So there is my current ranting! A friend of mine was saying the other day that people only seem to post happy things on their blogs. Now she can say that someone didn't! Although, I hope that those who read this will look at their lives as "half full". Because after typing all of this, I have realized that I really do have a "half full" life and that even those times that are hard I wouldn't trade because they make me appreciate the good times even more!

Blessings!

It seems at this time of year, I start thinking about the freedom I enjoy and all the blessings I have in my life. I know you are supposed to do that at Thanksgiving, but I do it in July too! I've been going over in my head the blessings I have and wondering how often I take them for granted. I know that I take my freedoms for granted. However much I appreciate the country I live in and the rights and privileges it affords me, I'm sure that I don't do all I can to take advantage of those rights. I certainly am grateful that I am able to worship how, who and where I want. Without this specific freedom, I wouldn't care about the other ones. So I want to say thank you to those that have gone before and those that will go ahead. The ones that make all the sacrifices so that I can live the way I want.

I heard the saying "Nothing is worth more than this day". I love that. It doesn't matter what happened yesterday or what you think will happen tomorrow. Today is the only day that you can truly do anything about. I hope that in the future I will make the most of my todays so that I won't regret my yesterdays and so that I will look forward to my tomorrows.

I decided that I wanted to start recording my daily blessings, because I find that they are different every day. So, with that in mind, here are just a few of the things that I am grateful for today......
* happiness
* cars that run (even though they don't have air conditioning!)
* clean socks
* sunshine
* cell phones
* laughter
* family
* friends
* milk (aaaaah!)
* good doctors
* DSL (finally!!)
* chick flicks
* my loving Heavenly Father

I hope that in being more conscious of my daily blessings, I will learn to appreciate them more so that tomorrow I won't have any regrets about today.