It's the Little Things

 Tomorrow, two things are happening.  My apartment complex is coming to do the quarterly spraying and I'm getting some furniture from a friend.  As such, today is a day of cleaning. 

I came downstairs and told Pete that we needed to clean and his job was to clean the living room.  Rather than fussing or "waiting for Tedd", he got started.  When I was done with my breakfast, I went in and found he'd done a pretty good job.  There were still a few things to do, and he patiently picked up the things I pointed out.  It's not the way things usually run.  I'm grateful for it.

While he working on the living room, I was working on the entryway and the kitchen.  Tedd was working in the dining room.  Unusually, he was giving me a bit more grief than Pete in terms of cleaning.  But I knew that, unlike with his younger brother, he'd actually get the things done eventually so I left him to it.  I finished up the entryway and got started on the kitchen when I ran out of mental spoons*.  I must have looked like I was flagging because Tedd came up and put his arm around me in a hug.  "It's ok, Mom.  You've done enough.  We'll get the rest done."  For all the slight annoyance earlier, I needed that. I'm grateful for it.

Next I called Rich to let him know that I might need his help tonight.  He's been working in the office today and has to stop at the grocery store tonight, but so I was hoping that he could just do the vacuuming, maybe help a little in the kitchen.  "Tell me what the priorities are and I'll work on them.  It's ok, love."  I needed to hear that right then.  I'm grateful for it.

When I ran out to grab "thank you for helping" lunch for the boys, I dealt with kind people in the drive-thrus.  I was wished a blessed day and told to drive carefully with a smile.  It helped make my day a little better.  I'm grateful for it.

On Kind Words, I had someone tell me that my message asking to share something positive that my message WAS her positive for the day and thanked me for bringing joy into her life.  I always hope that my words, my messages asking people to share their joy with me, is helping.  Hearing that it does made me smile.  I'm grateful for it.

A lot of little things didn't go the way I wanted them to, but that's fine.  I'm choosing not to focus on those little things.  For today, I'm choosing to focus on the little things that lift my spirit rather than the little things that destroy it.  Because life is made up of the little things.  We just have to choose what little things we choose to make the focus of our day.

My books and games are little things that bring me joy.  Strange camera angles do as well.

* If you've never heard of the Spoon Theory of Chronic Illness, the whole story is here.  But basically it's about having a limited number of spoons, or things you can do, in a given day before your illness (be it mental or physical) kicks in.  Some days, I have more spoons than others.  I try to plan my days as though I'm going to have fewer spoons to do what I need to so those get done, and only worry about the other things if I've got any left.  The spoon theory is a more concrete way for me to understand why some days are more difficult than others.