5 on a Friday: A Little Reframing (40/52)

 YOU GUYS. If 2024 were pregnant, she would be in her LAST TRIMESTER. TWELVE WEEKS TO GOOOOOOOOO!

I was inspired by Elisabeth's Happy Things' first birthday post to try to practice some radical positivity of my own. #OkayestLifeSoon. I also listened to a few episodes of Happier with Gretchen Rubin and was reminded of the genius of reframing something that is negative to make it positive. In particular, Gretchen was talking about how much she resented being a slave to her calendar before she realized that LIFE IS SCHEDULING-- a genius reframe.

Here are a few of my own attempts to take something that is not working for me and make it sound better (which will make it be better if the scholars in my discipline are to be believed).

1. HEY! You GUYS! Instead of COMPLAINING ABOUT BUS LANES AND CONSTRUCTION AND COMMUTE TIME-- what if I ... RODE THE BUS TO WORK SOMETIMES?!?! This will only work on days that Ben is home because it seems not ideal to me to be 30 minutes from home with no car when I am the only parent in town and the kids are at various schools. But! That's not EVERY DAY. And I can READ A BOOK or do a little work on the way to and from campus-- i am going to pick up my bus pass and give the new east/west bus rapid transit line a shot.

2.We have a kid who keeps NOT TURNING IN WORK, and it is driving me bananas. The very best thing about Harry being in college is that his work is not my problem anymore. It doesn't concern me at all if he turns it in. No one is sending me notices if he doesn't turn it in. I cannot even legally access his grades. It is a freaking dream. I don't think I realized how terrible all the missing work notifications have been over the years until his stopped coming. But now! The problem is happening all over again. And! The kid in question! Just thinks, like, if he doesn't turn in the assignment, it will just go away. BUT OF COURSE IT WILL NOT. Sometimes, the work is not done and the kid does not want to do it because it is too boring/too difficult/too tedious/too hard to get started. Other times, the work is lost.  But! The kid's reaction is the same: burying his head in the sand until I get a notification from the school's LMS that it is missing and nag him to turn it in.  So, here's the reframe: The idea that you have to do work when it is assigned even if you don't want to and that the work is important enough to pay attention to after completion all the way through DELIVERY is a LIFE SKILL, so if he learns it now, he'll be more successful, like, FOREVER. He is also learning through repeated trial and error that he is much more digitally organized than he is organized on paper, so knowing this before college is also a wonderful, useful discovery In some ways, the stakes are really high in high school because it feels like everything matters so much. But-- really--there is a college out there for every student who wants to find one and lots of different paths to post high school success. He'll be fine-- better than fine-- and learning these life skills NOW with so much support is a huge benefit.

3. The dishwasher? While FIXED, is maybe not the Completely Vital appliance I thought it was. I mean, listen-- I love it. And the kids did a pooor job of cleaning up their breakfast mess the other day, and I could clean it up SO FAST because I just needed to LOAD THE DISHWASHER. This was delightful. But also! I washed lunch dishes after Minnie and I ate the other day, and it was NBD. So, I mean, yes I heart the dishwasher, but not having one (or not using it as often) is OK, too. WEIRD.

4. Tracking our spending is making Ben and me understand each other better. What a great bonus! We are finding all of this completely random stuff we never noticed before. Magazines that auto-renew. Political contributions that we thought were 1-time and actually recur. Getting double-billed for 2 separate Apple services. I spent $52 on these rando charges today but actively purchased NOTHING. It's like we have both been right this whole time. We do spend a shit ton of money day-to-day (Ben) and we also never really buy anything (me).

5. It's delightful to be so busy and go to work every day because on the rare day that I can work from home, I enjoy the living heck out of the whole experience. It's like how wearing a girdle is almost worth it for the feeling of taking it off at the end of the day.

COOL BLOGGER WALKING CLUUUUUUUUB!!!