Like Dandelions... and Rotten Bananas

PLEASE excuse the excessive posting, but I have been doing a lot of thinking lately, and as much as I love my 2 and 3-year-olds, they have a hard time listening to deep thoughts. Matt's not a fan, either :), so I blog it (for some reason I have always been TERRIBLE at keeping a journal, so this is my journal, out in the open for all to read. Weird, I know.) Anyway, I have been really working on keeping a positive attitude lately. I am a very organized person, and like to keep everything under control. I get very frustrated when things happen (like LIFE) that I can't control. But guess what? There's not much that I can do about that. I CAN'T always change what happens in life, but I CAN change how I look at it. Hence the positive attitude thing. I have know people who have been through terrible ordeals (kind of makes my petty little trials look like a cake-walk), and through it all have the most positive attitude. I have decided that in order to be the best person that I can and raise my kids to have positive attitudes, I need to set the example (keep in mind I am WORKING on it, not perfect...yet :). So I have been trying to look at things that would normally bother me and see them in a more positive light. I realized today that my kids don't need my example, they already look at life with the glass half-full, I need them to teach me. See, we are not very good at weeding our yard sometimes. Lately we have had a TON of dandelions. Matt and I constantly complain about them, they drive us crazy! McKinley and Mason were outside playing in the backyard today. I was in the kitchen watching them through the window, and cleaning out the fridge and pantry. UGH! Rotten bananas again! Why do they go bad so fast? As I set them aside to throw away, McKinley and Mason burst into the kitchen SO excited and shouting "MOM! LOOK! We brought you BEAUTIFUL flowers! We picked them just for you! Smell them! They are your favorite color!" They do know that I love bright sunny yellow. "Wow, dandelions! Thank you so much, they are very pretty!" was all I could reply. I didn't have the heart to tell them they were weeds. Who said weeds were bad, anyway? They were so excited to put them in a little vase with water. Now they are proudly displayed in my kitchen, this nuisance that I have been trying to get rid of. After all, they ARE my favorite color. In their excitement, McKinley and Mason ran back out to find more of these 'wonderful' flowers. Back to my cleaning. Oh yeah, the rotten bananas. HMMMM... if dandelions can be good, what about rotten bananas? I do have a really yummy banana bread recipe that I haven't used in years. So, rather than grumble about wasting bananas and throwing them away, the kids helped me mash them and bake 3 loaves of the best banana bread ever (which is more like banana cake since it has so much sugar, but that's beside the point:). Ironically, the more rotten the banana (to a point, of course), the sweeter and better the banana bread. So, another day, another lesson learned from my darling children. Again, I write this more so that I remember it than for anyone else to benefit from reading it. The formula for a happy life isn't getting everything that you want just the way you want it. It's finding happiness where you are with what you have. In life, it's all in how you look at it. Anything can be made into a positive experience if we try to look for the good in it. Like dandelions... and rotten bananas.