Never Give Up

That is our family motto. You can hear it said thru homework battles, Wii championships, me making the kids lunch they will eat. The motto is largely driven by Husband who is retired military.

If it was up to me, our family motto would be "Meh, why bother?"

And I blame my mother.

I love my mom, obviously, and she has been nothing but good to me, my family and my brother's family (in her own weird way at times!). But somewhere down the line, she has become VERY pessimistic. It is likely you will hear the following phrase(s) when receiving a gift from her: Happy (insert occasion here)!! You probably won't like the gift/it won't fit/I got it on sale/I have had it for years/give it to the homeless. These comments have become so routine that we all laugh about it now. But it has definitely made it's mark on how I view the world.

I am a glass half empty with a chip in the rim kind of gal. It has always been easier for me to expect nothing and then if something good does happen, whammo! I am thrilled!! Much easier for me to set myself up for disappointment then to expect something good to happen. I know I do this and I try not to relay this crazy thinking to my kids, though I know it seeps thru (they will someday blame ME for their afflictions).

I had a rough evening and day today with Middle child. He finally broke down about why he has been so distraught all week and though it is nothing that he can't handle, it is hard to see my cocky, puffed up kid cry. He will be ok and we will work thru it, but it gave me a lot to think about.

Then he broke our tv today. To be fair, the tv has had some issues that we had ironed out and he was the unfortunate one that hit the button at the wrong time and caused it to die it's final death. But it made me mad, really mad.

So I went for a run. Daughter watched the boys and I hit the pavement. I think about all kinds of things when I run and today was no exception. Most of my thinking was centered around my negative, internal talk, what I can do for Middle child, why is their lawn so nice?, and Squirrel!!!

I also thought about Husband. No matter what we face, he cheerfully will say to me "Never Give Up". That got me thru the last couple minutes of my run and I was sure to thank him today for being the glass is not only half full but over flowing member of the family. I could not get thru any of this without him.

On a side note, I made a killer dinner again of chicken thighs, canned tomatoes, and olives. Served it over orzo. YUM.

But you probably won't like it :)

Cat