Words to live by

Lately, I've felt myself struggling.

I feel comfortable with the big things in my life - my job, my apartment, my kids. I'm thankful for all of it to the point that sometimes I get teary thinking about how blessed I am -- to be able to pay my rent, to live comfortably, to have a good job, to have two healthy, smart, crazy little boys.

But its almost as if, because I've taken care of the basics - food, shelter, clothing - that I now find I'm sitting back, looking at the minutia and feel like I'm overwhelmed by it all.

My kids had a BAD night the other night. Whining and crying and fighting -- and I was ashamed at my reaction to them. On top of it, we had friends over to witness our group meltdown. It was absolutely horrid.

There's too much to do, too little time in which to do it, and school starts next week. I'm stressing about things I have no reason to stress over. Worrying about things that are out of my control. I'd love to take my own advice but sometimes it just doesn't stick, you know?

So, after days of wading through the muck and mire, and fed up with myself, I literally took pen in hand today and wrote down on paper what I was going to do, so as to see, in black and white, how I was going to get my life back to "center".

And then I prettied it up and made it purple for you.

This was influenced, I'm sure, by my love for Pinterest and posting quotes to my "Werds" board, this post by the lovely Lucrecer Braxton who always has amazingly inspiring quotes to share on Facebook, and this post by Alli Worthington on Life Lessons for her boys. Thanks for the encouragement and inspiration, ladies - I've started to feel better already!

What would your "Words to Live By" say?