Day 5 - Already?

Wow, the first five days of this new attitude have already passed? Crazy! I do think it's paying off in spades. Several friends have told me they enjoy reading this blog, and that they can identify. My seven year old noticed I'm spending more time playing. And last night at dinner my husband said I had a new spring in my step and a totally different attitude. I kind of laughed off the changes he mentioned, but I thought about them later and decided this week really has made a difference. After a little thought, I've decided to attribute it to focusing on what's really important, thinking about others, and getting off my lazy butt and leaving the computer for several hours at a time. After all, it's very true that serving others (in this case my family) generally makes us happy, and I'm choosing to play every day! I don't know when the last time was that I made plans to play, but it really is fun! How can that not put a spring in my step? (I'm sure it also helps that doing Morning Basics and my Daily Chore helps me feel less guilty about not cleaning every second I stop to goof off. I mean, I have three kids, two dogs, three cats and a spouse who's often building something in my house. I could clean 24/7 and never have a spotless home. However, knowing I'm staying on top of the most important things really does relieve stress.)

Now, on to Friday... There is something new on the blog today. I added a second page with a Week and a Glance calendar. Right now it's pretty generic, but as I get better at this I'd like to have all the variables filled in, including fun time activities and meal ideas. I know that if I'd plan our meals in advance my life would just continue to get easier, so that's one more baby step to work toward. For now, that's where I'll keep my outline for each day and I'll write about the fun times here.

Today I'm going to turn my kids into models. I always take some fun pictures of them for their birthdays but this year I never got around to Elise's seven year pics. (Her birthday is just before Christmas so it's really easy to put it off, and I have really drug it out far too long.) I also haven't taken Alex's two year pictures yet, and of course we'll get some current, summery shots of Madelyn. So that's what's on tap for today. I'm thinking we'll just stay home and use our yard as a backdrop. The yard is so pretty right now it seems a shame not to document it as well. And, if I'm unhappy with the lack of variety, well, I'll just have a good excuse to dress the kids up and photograph them all over again.

Oh, and I'm also including some pictures of our new flower clips. The girls and I had a really good time making them. And after Alex's nap, we broke out the play doh again and opened a play doh ice cream shop. It's so nice that he's now old enough to remember we only pretend to eat that kind of ice cream! (The picture of Alex is from the pool, where he watched tractors at the nearby construction site while the girls swam.)