Friday Fragments- Searching for the Feel Good

Some weeks are harder than others. Some weeks bring things you didn't expect. I'm mostly an optimist so I'm searching to find the good in the hard and challenging things this week. Tomorrow, I am supposed to go downtown with countless thousands of other crazies and run. Some are doing a marathon, some a half marathon. I'm participating in this event's first 5K. I've been very excited about this event. Until this week. Until this morning, really. See, it is supposed to be about 25 degrees when I wake up in the morning and I don't think it's going to get too much warmer by the 8:20 start time. I've never run in temps colder than 50 degrees. The challenge- figuring out what to wear and staying motivated to go downtown in a giant crowd of people on a freezing cold morning so that I can run 3.1 miles. The feel good- I'm going to do it and then feel awesome about myself afterwards. This week, a prayer was answered but in a rather unexpected way. The challenge- recognizing that the events unfolding weren't something bad or scary. The feel good- realizing that the events were actually answers to prayers that I've been praying for years and seeing that the events that unfolded actually provided a lot of answers. I made a new friend yesterday. He's a blogger and I know some of you already read him- Ian from The Daily Dose of Reality. I've been a lurker on his blog for a while and left a comment yesterday- and he e-mailed back a response lightening fast and we had a nice little back and forth chat for a bit yesterday. He's having a bit of a blogging slump so swing by and leave him some comment love- today's post is on what you wish you knew then that you're glad you know now. No challenge on this one- always a feel good to make a new friend! I've been totally using my kids' Halloween haul to parent my kids. I don't bribe them to do things with it- I use it as a threat if they don't follow family rules. And so far, it's working pretty well. Teagan was whining and having a fit and I told her- "Teagan, you are choosing to not follow family rules about how we act in our family. If you can't pull it together and make good choices, I"m going to have to throw away a piece of your candy." Instant shape up. "Zach get your shoes on. Zach. Stop playing with the puzzle and get your shoes so we can go to school. Zachary. Bring me your shoes to put on or I will throw away a piece of your Halloween chocolate!" Attitude adjusts immediately. I did almost face a misfire the other night. 2 nights ago, I had to go so far as to ask Teagan to take a piece of her candy and throw it away herself because she lied to me about something in order to get her after dinner candy. She was handling it really well until she got to the trash can and then cried while throwing it away. All was fine after that. The next night, Zach wouldn't calm down at bedtime and kept trying to jump on his bed. I gave the candy threat and he replied with "OK! I want to pick it out!" Say huh??? So I go with it... we go pick out the chocolate from the bag and he heads into the kitchen to toss it in the trash. And he mimics his sister from the night before. Gets into the kitchen and starts to cry about throwing it away. I think he just wanted to be like her. The challenge- candy control. The feel good- finding a way to control consumption and behavior at the same time. I had some fun with a pashmina that Christy brought me from her trip to Paris back in September. I wore it yesterday but had a hard time making it work with my outfit- so I posted an album of various styles on my Facebook page. The challenge- taking a pashmina that was a silky material that easily became floofy and adding it to my outfit. The feel good- finding something fun to pass the day and getting advice and making it work! How about you? Did you face any challenges this week? Were you able to find the feel good in them?