seeing the pontential

I like to think we are, on the whole, a positive family.

We live very much for the here and now, and for the simple joy of living.

There are days when the simple joy of living escapes me, and I find myself hiding in the bathroom just for five minutes peace. (But then, they know how to open the bathroom from the outside so even this refuge is very fleeting.)

I am making my New Years resolution a few weeks early, and that is to find the positive, the happy and the good in each day. It will involve some creative thinking on my part, but if my children can grow up remembering me not as a cranky, moaning mother, then it will be worth it.

I get frustrated by the same things again and again...how long it takes us to leave the house, Shreks temper tantrums when I am trying to do some thing with one of his siblings and he wants me NOW, the housework, the festive season breathing down my neck.

Enough.

There will always be housework, deadlines and chores, and I will always choose reading a story over sorting the laundry. There will be days when we are late.

Od's tenth birthday is fast approaching, and I find myself wishing to revisit her at six weeks old, two years and so on. Mentally I do this when I am laying in bed, trying to remember the things she has said and done, wondering if she will stay the sweet girl she is, or if the future holds a terrifying teenager for me.

Breath. Deeply.

We will be moving house next year, and I don't want the next few months to disappear in a series of packing boxes. There will some effort on my part to make sure this doesn't happen. I like to think I am up to the task.

We're pretty good as seeing the potential in things. For example...some of you will simply see a pile of plasticine below. What Mb sees is cakes for the cake monster.

Glaringly obvious now isn't it?