Two Daily Choices: Be Grateful or Be Grumbly?

It's days like these (when I'm desperately trying to choke back the complaining and frustration) that I'm confronted with two choices: to be grateful for my blessings or to grumble about my losses. In fact, I'm given the same two choices each day. Typically, the choice isn't nearly so apparent...and typically, I choose the latter without even making a lame attempt at the former.

The street and TWO cars are buried under the tree debris.

Late last night, a storm ripped through town. A similar storm had ripped through town the night before, but this one sounded louder and more aggressive. Standing on our front porch in the midst of 70-mph winds, we were horrified to get glimpses of our cars covered by toppled, full-size trees. The power was out (estimated wait was 16-32 hours). The kids were scared. My mind was reeling of the insurance nightmare before me.


After less than three hours sleep, we were up with the morning sun to assess damages. The street was blocked by not one, but two full-sized trees that had fallen from the house across the street onto our cars. I couldn't help but laugh when street crews put up "road closed" signs on either side of the street...as if the tree debris wasn't clue enough for poor, unsuspecting drivers.


After fighting with the insurance company to get us into rentals and starting the inane claim filing process, I couldn't help but get more and more overwhelmed at the uphill battle to replace all our "stuff." But that's just what it is - STUFF.


Our house, thankfully, withstood the awful storm (and trees). Our family was protected. No one was hurt. (Clearly our sense of humor was left intact, when my husband found yesterday's mail in the destroyed mailbox that ironically held two pieces of junk mail from dealerships and mail from our trusty auto insurance company.) We have terrific neighbors who jumped into to help with the clean-up and stopped by to check on us all day. Oh, and our power? It came back on within a few hours...that's more than I can say for my neighbors who are STILL without power.


So, that's our daily choice: be grateful or be grumbly. For today, I'm making a minute-by-minute choice to be grateful. And as I type this, I realize that I could make days more positive if I consistently make this choice - even on frustrating days. It would increase my productivity, make me nicer mommy to my children, and maybe even accomplish more on the homefront before my husband comes home from work.

Digital Age - whaaaaat?

With school about to start up again, I've been inundated with numerous back-to-school dates and activities - some with kids and some without - from two different schools. Between these dates plus additional meetings and deadlines and my husband's schedule, it was starting to get ridiculously out of hand.

Since my previous scheduling mishaps post, I've been maintaining three (that's right, THREE) calendars: my trusty Franklin Covey planner, a family digital calendar (which my husband never checks) and a monthly low-tech dry erase calendar (that currently reads JUNE). But marking activities in THREE spots is starting to become a job of its own.

Even though it feels a bit disloyal to my trusty Franklin Planner, I'm now using my smartphone to track all meetings and dates. In one moment, it syncs to my Outlook calendar and allows my husband (when he checks it) to see meetings, dance class, violin lessons all in one location.

I'm not sure when I'll be ready to give up my Franklin Habit, since my love relationship with a planner pre-dates my husband and I's relationship...but for now, it feels good to have all dates in one place. Plus, automatically backs up and syncs to several locations.