Perspective

Elliot thinks the ducks would rather be looking outside than lined up neatly in a row.
Isn't it funny how sometimes when we just change our viewpoint things can look so much different.

Yesterday I started putting away the Valentine's Day decorations and pulling out the Spring and Easter ones in the hope to brighten these winter days.  The last few days we've gotten more snow, rain, and ice which has been somewhat depressing.   With all our house troubles (now the basement is leaking too), Jeff and I both being sick this weekend, and the dismal weather I've sort of been in the dumps.

Today we woke up to the world covered in ice with didn't make for a great start.  My short temper and sour attitude was even annoying me.  When Emme went down for her nap I put on a movie for Elliot (How to Train Your Dragon) and plopped myself down with my laptop and started catching up on the blogs I follow.  Of course, I was thinking to myself "Finally a minute to myself.  I totally deserve this."  You know, all that selfish self-justification that we do.

But then I went over to Under the Sycamore where one of her posts today was about cancer.   In it she talks about two women.  The first is Valerie Koop who lost her husband to cancer early this month.  Valerie writes candidly about it on her blog.  I found myself weeping at her account of her loss, of her two young children, of her family, and the love of her friends.  It instantly changed my mood from self-absorbed depression to one of wordless gratitude that God has granted me the life I have.

The second woman is Libby Ryder who just this past week became cancer free!  She also chronicles her fight with cancer (and now it's defeat) on her blog.  I love her motto "don't waste your cancer or your life."

Both these women have very different experiences with cancer and I'd never even knew they existed until today.  But isn't it weird/ awesome/ amazing that God used both of them to encourage me and get me back on track.

So now it doesn't bother me that Elliot wants to play dragons (again) or that the world outside is covered in ice (it's actually very beautiful and shimmery).  Will this feeling last forever? Probably not, but I hope that the next time I fall into a funk it won't take me so long to get out of it.  Because really what's the point?  Life is SO short so why waste it being cranky?  (This is not what I was planning on writing today but I felt compelled to share it.)

In other news- I'm currently painting two shelves we made for Elliot's room that I can't wait to share later this week.  Less is More March starts tomorrow which I'll also be writing more about (we've already cut one bill by $50 a month).  And I have lots of projects in my head that I can hopefully start working on soon.

Hope you have a happy Monday!