"Borrowed" Book

First let me say, Mom, I will send you your book back....after I try an experiment.


I found a book that was given to my mother by one of her friends. Don't Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family. (I hope she didn't get that because of me??) Regardless, I have been feeling, um, "off" a bit lately. Divine intervention maybe? Well, what I am going to do is take my time and work on a chapter at time and see if it makes a difference. There are 100 steps, so we will see how many I actually get to or go through.


Chapter 1. Set a postive emotional climate.


So the other day when everyone left and I walked around and got all mad and huffy and upset, I wasn't setting a "positive emotional climate?" Things I will be working on. Does this need to be done yesterday? Do I allow the children to get one chore done before giving them another to do because I could have gotten it done by now? Do we need to hurry to get this done, really? Hmm...So what steps have I taken today to achieve a more positive emotional climate? I have purposely slowed down when speaking to the children and made sure they knew I was focusing exclusively on their conversation, even simply turning my chair away from the computer, even though I was working. Some things should take precedence over work. We all know that our attitude is the main ingredient that we can control, yes, we can control it, when it comes to our emotional environment. We can chose to be peaceful and understanding and slow to anger, pretty much as God intended. Or we can rant and rave and work ourselves into frenzy for naught except high blood pressure. I think I like the former.

So, can I move on to chapter two yet?? Didn't think so. This may take a few days. In fact, according to the author, it may have taken years to create the environment we are living now(yes, I do have an anxious personality), and may take time to create a new one...

Mom, I might just have to buy you a new book!