Earlier this week I challenged you all (and myself) to the 7 Days of Not Complaining.  Well, the first day was an epic fail.  I guess I shouldn’t call it epic, but it was not so great.  I have to be honest though, I believe I’ve gotten a little better every day since then, and I believe this is something I can get used to.

For those of you who regularly check out my blogs, you know how I feel about the Serenity Prayer.  For those of you who are new, let me tell you, I try to apply it to everything. This 7 day challenge has been no exception. 

In the last week I’ve noticed something about myself that was a little concerning.  Life has been happening, and it’s been a little more chaotic than usual. Instead of taking it in stride, I’ve been complaining… a lot!  I am not a chronic complainer.  As a matter of fact, I usually find myself not only finding my silver lining, but finding it for others as well.  This week, I’ve just been frustrated.

When I get into a “funk,” I usually remind myself that my gratitude determines my attitude.  However, in all honesty, there are those moments that I’m truly grateful, but still discontent.

I’ve decided I’d give myself a 7-day challenge.  I’m appropriately naming it “Seven Days of Not Complaining.”  It will be really interesting to see how this goes. 

My daughter truly fascinates me.  Over the last few days I have been watching her and learning a lot.  It’s amazing what you can learn from a  one-year-old.

She celebrates everything.  When she throws something away she smiles, when she finishes her food she claps and even when she managed to put a cookie in the XBox, she did a little dance.   She celebrates every accomplishment whether it’s big or small, and why shouldn’t she?  Why shouldn’t we?

How often do you take the time to celebrate your accomplishments?  When is the last time you gave yourself a pat on the back for finishing a task?  When is the last time you finished dinner or a load of laundry and applauded yourself?  I thought about this and couldn’t remember the last time I had.  So I started. 

This week was filled with unexpected events.  It started with a trip to urgent care after my daughter felt the appropriate place for a green bean was in her ear.  It was followed by unexpected illnesses, crises at work, and another trip to urgent care after my daughter’s face lost a war with a mosquito lurking in our car on the ride home.

As we all know,“life happens,” and this week it taught me the importance of remaining calm in stressful situations and dealing with the unexpected.

It’s not that any of the events I mentioned were particularly anything to pull your hair out over.  It was simply the culmination of events compounded by the fact that I had too many other things that needed to get done.

The green bean incident was in the middle of preparation of dinner.  The illnesses were during a time I couldn’t afford not to feel well, and the crises at work took place when I needed to catch up on paperwork.  So what do you do when life presents those unexpected events during a time you have planned to get other things done?  Well, you can roll with the punches.  You choose to get up and push, or lie down and die.  However, there are some things you can do to alleviate the stress of the unexpected.