Looking at the Bright Side

Well it's that time of year....the winter blah time of the year. The holidays are over, and it's hard to find things to really look forward to. (Besides our everyday lives) A lot of us don't have money after the holidays to take little mini vacations, etc. So sometimes the winter blahs seem to hit a little harder. Well even my kids seem to get the winter blahs. They can't go outside a lot because it's so cold, and the sun seems to not shine as bright. It gets dark so early, and for some reason it just seems dreary outside this time of year. All of this being said I realized this year that I had to teach my children to not just survive, but to thrive during the winter blah months. How to do this? Well the first thing I did was organize. I organized their schedules out daily, and have really been reminding them about taking one thing at a time. Meaning this...when you are in math class think about nothing but math. When you are in basketball focus on basketball not math. They don't just survive the boring day, but thrive at each task at hand! As for me I'm back to my 'to do list' it seems to keep me more focused, and I don't have time to let my mind wonder on the things that detour me from thriving during the winter blah. The other part to beating the winter blahs for me and the kids is constantly looking at the bright side of any situation that weighs us down. They are really getting this they are telling me their drama and then say but on the bright side mom. Madeline was bummed about all the other girls getting growth spurts and not her, "but mom on the bright side I get the rebounds before the other girls." I was a little bummed about my entire weekends being consumed by the kids and their sports, "but on the bright side, Brandon choose his own jersey number this year, and picked his sister's number not some pro ball players number".