Random Things That Brighten My Day

Work is overwhelming. The house is smelly. Dinner is late. Your newborn screams bloody murder every time you lay her down. And your toddler has been repeating this phrase in a desperate whine for the past 27 minutes: “Mommy, I want the little yellow ball!” No one knows where the little yellow ball is. 

Mom life can get stressful. I invented a tiny reminder motto for myself. Think Big and See Small. It means: When things get tough, take a step back and look at the big picture. Think about my beautiful family, acknowledge what’s going well and remind myself of my goals. At the same time, make a conscious effort to notice and appreciate the small blessings in my daily life. 

These are six random and fairly insignificant things that make my day better on a day-to-day basis. They are small and easy to overlook, but they bring me little moments of joy. I challenge you to make your own list.

#1. Ocean Waves. Nope, I don’t live in a beach house. We have a cheap-o baby radio thingy that plays various sounds like white noise, Twinkle Twinkle, heartbeat (so creepy… it’s like being in an Edgar Allen Poe poem). One of them is the sound of ocean waves. It sounds a bit silly, but the other morning I was laying there listening to it while my 3-year-old and 3-month old lay sleeping on either side of me, and I felt totally at peace. Sometimes I envision my next vacation to Hawaii or think back to special family memories on the Oregon coast. 

#2. Whipped Milk. I have a $3 IKEA battery-operated milk whipper my mom gave me years ago, and I use it to make a home-made latte every morning. On workdays, when I wake up at 5:00am, it’s something I think about to get me feeling excited to start my day. It’s part of my Saturday morning routine to start heating the latte milk and making up the waffle batter, often with my son Matty as sous chef. Currently, my wonderful mother-in-law is here from Peru and I’m on maternity leave. It has become our routine to drink a latte together every morning amidst the chaos of feeding Matty his oatmeal, getting a cranky baby down for her first nap and preparing breakfast for ourselves. I can tell my mother-in-law gets a kick out of my lattes and looks forward to them as much as I do. We bought her a giant cat mug at Fred Meyer because she kept making fun of our small decorative mugs and tiny Chinese tea cups.

#3. Netflix and Pump. My pumping experiences with my first child were less than enjoyable. It felt like a huge burden upon my existence. Not sure why, but I don’t remember ever doing anything while pumping to improve the experience, such as listening to music to relax or watching T.V. to pass the time. For some reason, with my second baby I sort of enjoy pumping. I feel immense satisfaction each time I fill up another one of those plastic 5oz. bags and pop it in the freezer. As if they were each worth $1000 or something. I can’t wait to have like 250oz. saved up in there when I return to work. Anyhow, if you have not yet seen the show Workin’ Moms on Netflix, you have got to watch it. It is hilarious and so well written. I watch it for 15-20 minutes while I lock myself in my room and pump. I no longer dread pumping – I now value it as a rare opportunity for some alone time and look forward to watching my favorite show. 

#4. Pretty Notebooks. Remember when you were a teen and bought cutesy diaries? I used to get the earthy hippie journals that had bits of twigs and grass woven into the pages. As an adult, I still love to have journals and notebooks around my house to use for various purposes. l keep a reflections diary from time to time, I make lists of things I’m grateful for, and I like to write out my goals, actions steps, to-do lists and ideas. It makes me feel happy to hold a nice looking, good-quality notebook in my hand as I’m working on any of these tasks. And I’m much more likely to actually work and write in a fancy journal versus a wide-ruled spiral. I’m currently using some that my sister-in-law and her fiancé gave me the last time we visited them in Peru. He owns a printing business and makes unique journals with Peruvian cultural images. Whenever I use these, I fondly remember our recent visits. 

#5. Tunes. We have a long commute in the morning, which was even longer when we used to have take our son at daycare. It would take one-and-a-half to two hours each way. I’m lucky enough to get to carpool with my husband. Getting up so early, dropping my son off, the long drive and traffic can all be huge downers if we let them. I try to keep focused on the positive aspects of the morning as much as possible, such as my morning latte. Listening to a few tunes on the way to work also brightens my day. This sounds obvious, but I’m a person who can be very lazy and forgetful about doing small things to improve my daily experience, which is what this post is all about. For instance, if I’m very sleepy or feeling anxious about work on a particular day, I might not even think about turning on the radio. My husband, on the contrary, always has the tunes going, and I feel that he has helped me get in a habit of listening to something upbeat in the morning. I often listen to inspirational podcasts as well. Many people have a routine of turning on the news first thing in the morning. My current favorite is Rise with Rachel Hollis. The news is filled with fear-inducing and tragic stories, which put your mind and body into a negative state before you even start your day. I like to (pretend to) make an attempt to stay knowledgeable about current events, but I realized that I was arriving to work riddled with anxiety after listening to NPR in the mornings. Now I make a conscious choice to listen to something positive (music, podcasts) to start my morning and (sometimes) catch up with the news at other times during the day. 

#6. Lemonade Concoctions. As a mom (and especially a stay-at-home mom), we don’t get many opportunities to be fancy. We also can’t drink much, as we’re always either pregnant, breastfeeding or responsible for small children. Sometimes being able to have a delicious (non-alcoholic) drink can make me feel happy and relaxed. My sister introduced me to lemonade with frozen raspberries in place of ice. When she stayed with us for three weeks after my daughter was born, we would buy both regular and pink Simply Lemonade every week, then mix and match them, adding the frozen raspberries on top. Later, I started mixing lime LaCroix with lemonade. Again, it sounds silly, but I think it’s important to find small things you can enjoy as a mom, especially when your kids are very young, since we do tend to make a lot of daily sacrifices. 

What are the random things that bring a smile to your face as you go about your day? Share them in the comments! When we take time to appreciate small blessings, more will come our way.