"The Never Ending Story" was one of my favorite movie when I was young. It's story line was filled with adventure, intrigue, and mystery. It took you to a far off land complete with strange creatures, scary monsters, princesses and gigantic flying dogs.

It's been 20 years (which I hate to admit) and my life has changed significantly. I am a stay at home mom with 4 kids, and an appropriate title for my life right now might be:

"The Never Ending Story"

There are no trolls, wolves, or unicorns in my story; but there is a never ending pile of laundry, an endless stream of dirty dishes, and an overwhelming amount of phone calls to return. My new story includes a never ending To Do list, a never ending sense of underachieving, but most of all

Never Ending Joy.

I have a Facebook account that lets me keep in touch with my family and friends in town and far away. I have had so much fun reconnecting with people I haven't seen in years. It's great to catch up and be a small part of their lives again. As I read peoples posts each day, I can't help but notice how many are negative. So many people-but for the most part moms seem to be miserable. They write about how awful their day is, or how bad their children are misbehaving, or how they wish the day would be over. Everyone has bad days, I get that; but when everyday is bad something needs to change.

I was listening to the radio this morning and the topic of discussion was annual Christmas letter to family and friends.

Do you read them?

Do you send them?

Etc.

Most people said that they did send them, but several called them "bragging letters". One women wrote an email to the DJ's that said something to the effect of " I hate those letters because they talk about how great their family and their dogs are. How wonderful their kids are doing in school, and how proud they are of them, but everyday on facebook they talk about how bad their kids are, and how done they are with their lives."

It was then that I realized my peer group was not the only ones with the dilemma. It is so easy to become negative, and dwell on the things that are going wrong, we let the great things in life pass us by.

I am acutely aware of how lucky I am to be a stay at home mom. Not because I am on some higher plane than others, but because I was raised by a single mom who wanted nothing more than to stay at home with her kids and was never afforded that luxury. My mom had to go to work to put food on the table. If she didn't work, we didn't eat. It was as simple as that. She had to work two and three jobs to make ends meet several times, but we always knew she was doing it because she loved us, and not because she wanted to be away.

It breaks my heart to hear moms say things like "my kids are awful today. When is this day going to end!" How do those kids feel? Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you deal with it. If these moms are posting this for everyone to see, what are they projecting to their kids? I hope and pray that my kids know everyday how much I love them, and how thankful I am that I am able to be home for them when they get off the bus from school. I hope they know how grateful I am that if they are sick I get to stay home with them. There were plenty of times while I was growing up that I would be home sick from school and all my mom could do was call and check on me. She used to call all the time and it would drive me crazy as I sat in bed sick; but now that I am a mom I can only imagine how worried and helpless she must have felt having a sick child at home and not being able to take care of them. I say bring on the puke, and the runny noses. I would rather get puked on 100 times a day than have to leave one of my children at home by themselves when they were sick.

It is so easy to get caught up in the "what if's" and the "if only I could's" that you loose focus on what is important. Do you want your kids to look back on their childhood and remember a miserable mom who did nothing but complain and mope; or a mom who had fun? A mom who greeted them with a genuine smile everyday when they came home from school. A mom who actually enjoyed their company and showed a honest interest in their lives.

I want my kids to be able to look back on their childhood and say we had fun. Mom got mad sometimes, and yelled sometimes, but she loved us, and we had fun! You are the example to your children. They learn their social cues from you. If you are negative they will be negative. We only have one life and I choose to live mine positive and happy. Everyone has challenges and hard days, but make those challenges learning experiences, and those hard days the exception; NOT the rule.

Choose to be happy.

Choose to have fun.

Choose to be productive no matter what stands in your way.

But most of all...

Choose to love your life.

If you don't love your life

Choose to change it.

We can not choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we deal with it.