Bloomin'

Today the kids brought flowers in to the teachers for Staff Appreciation week. I volunteered to arrange all of the flowers from each kid for the teacher. OK actually, I sort of volunteered...I said, I'd do it if no one else volunteered...and guess what, no one did. So...I could have gone in today all grumbly and disappointed because doing this "arranging" made my morning very close in terms to 2 other back to back meetings...the "old" me would have harbored some martyr thoughts, the new me still has those thoughts, but they have less of a hold, and I have chosen to rethink the yucky thoughts and focus on what is good about the situation. So the YUCKY thoughts are:

It seems that our class has VERY FEW families willing to volunteer....WHERE are the other helpers?

My replacement thoughts are:

1. I'm glad I am able to help Mrs. C. (the teacher). It allows me to give her relief in her challenging, underpaid...under appreciated job.


2. It also allows me to see what is going on in the classroom in "real time" and see how my daughter is doing.


3. Bonus: I got to arrange some beautiful flowers that not only looked gorgeous, but smelled good too.


4. Double bonus: it only took 40 minutes of my day!

So the net result is that I "got to" be of service, create beautiful flower displays, smell roses AND see my daughter in her element. That is a much better and more free thought than..."woe is me, I'm the only one who is willing to volunteer". AMAZING what a little thought turnaround can do!