4 Ways out of a Funk

After having a baby I felt like Ethan in this picture. But then you slowly come out of the sleepless, zombie, recovery stage of the first two months and start to get in a routine of your new normal.  As soon as the excitement of a new baby had passed, I felt discouraged thinking about the craziness of the next few years of babies and toddlers and three kids 3 and under.  These are 4 things I tried to implement to change my level of happiness.

Fake it until you make it.
Fake people are lame, we all know. But I decided to make an effort to just try to act happy for my husband when he came home from work. At first it felt deceiving but after a while acting happy made me actually feel happy.  Instead of tiptoeing around my bad attitude or comforting my victim pleas, my husband would share funny stories or things with with me that genuinely made me feel happy.

No one has it all together.
Recently a friend said that she has always thought I "had everything together". I couldn't believe that anyone would have that perception of me but the funny thing is that I thought she was a Mom who "had everything together." The truth is no one has everything together and we need to stop comparing ourselves to imaginary perfect Moms we have decided everyone around us are.

Comparison is the thief of joy - Theodore Roosevelt

Mornings are crucial. 
Wake up way to early to whiney toddler. Hand toddler phone. Try to go back to sleep. Hear rummaging of food in kitchen.  Oh well, Try to go back to sleep. Help toddler open bag of cereal/nutragrain bar/fruit snack.  Try to go back to sleep.  Finally get up, get mad at mess toddler just made while you were asleep.  This was me. Then I realized the back and forth trying to get those few extra minutes of sleep were not worth the bad mood it put me in.  I was much happier when I just got up the first time and started the day right.

Attitude is everything.
I have two friends. One rambles about how everything is so hard and crazy and busy and the other is always happy, optimistic and has something positive to say.  Most of us are going through the same
ups and downs and screaming kids and whining kids and messes, but what makes these two Moms have such a different take on life: Attitude.