Focus on the good

Yesterday morning my friend Michelle sent me a text.  Included in its message were the words:  You can do it!  Focus on the good!

Everyone needs cheerleader friends like Michelle to text them in the 7:00 AM hour.

I hadn't slept well and felt grumpy, but I noticed the pink puffy clouds over the mountain as I walked into school.  I was trying to focus on the good.

I had traffic duty, which I have a love/hate relationship with because it takes my time, but it also gives me chances to chat with the kids which I enjoy.  I tried to focus on that part.

We had a rehearsal for our 3rd grade culture program which is coming RIGHT up and we're NOT ready for it.  (At all.  Not at all.)  It was in the gym and it was chaotic.  One of my students asked if she could go get a drink.  I said no.  A few minutes later she got up and ran away.  She is a runner anyway and just last week I had to call the office because she was on the lam.  This time though, she made a beeline for the garbage and threw up in it.

I was so proud of her for thinking to use the garbage!

I forgot all about trying to focus on the good.  I just was that grateful.  She is my fifth(!) student to throw up this year (but who's counting, right?) and the first one to have the presence of mind to use the garbage.

Later, I remembered how I was trying to focus on the good and I patted myself on the back for feeling so optimistic about the garbage thing.

It's the little things, you know?

It was a hard day, which is always the case when I am tired and they are too.  I had rearranged the desks and one student told me that it gave him more room to run around.  He wasn't wrong.  I kind of forgot about focusing on the good and then after school, I remembered.

Here was my low bar focus on the good:  we all survived the day.

High fives all around.

(And I may rearrange the desks again.)