The Be's

We’re going to make it a point to follow the Be’s. We’re all about action words. It’s one thing to write out nice sayings, but these are things we will actually have to do. Action will be required.

Be Thankful
There is so much in our lives to be thankful for. We should be living in a constant state of thankfulness. I woke up this morning, there’s reason #1 on my list today! My bedroom smelled like a men’s locker room when I woke up this morning, but yeah! I have a husband who goes to bed with me every night and wakes up with me every morning, reason #2. It made me sad we didn’t have any milk in the fridge, but hey! the fridge was working, reason #3. See how easy this is? The hard part is you really have to mean it.

Be Grateful

I’m terrible at this. I assume people can read my heart and thoughts when I’m truly grateful. I often forget to tell them out loud! I’m grateful to our friends Lorrie and Brian who let us hang out at their house all the time without invitation or notice, we just show up. I’m grateful to my sister who is the BEST Aunt on the planet to my daughters. I’m grateful my family is letting me use them as guinea pigs on this adventure.

Be Generous

This is a big one, give more than we get. This isn’t all about money. Give more time to our kids then to our TV. Give more time to my spouse then my novel. Give more attention to your wife then to you video game. Give more of our time to volunteering, give more of our clothes to charity, give more, more, more!! Our girls are good at giving everything but their money, we’re working on a charity fund. They are resisting, Ozzie is insisting. I want them to decide on their own. We’ll see where this goes. Stay tuned.

Be Loving

We will be loving towards one another in our words and in our deeds. We will say loving words to each other. We will show each other affection. We will do these things publicly so our daughters will see what real love looks like and to embarrass them. We love to freak out our girls with a big hug followed by a short sweet kiss between Ozzie and I. This has back-fired lately. It’s Max our dog that is more horrified by this display of affection. He barks and jumps and tries to attack. We have yet to figure out who he is barking at. The girls join in. Then we have two kids and a dog running through the house screaming and barking that daddy is trying to attack mommy. The sweet romantic moment has been lost. Ozzie turns into a giant hug monster and tries to tackle everyone simultaneously, he usually succeeds.

Be Helpful

We will help one another. I love when someone, anyone steps in to help me without being asked! It’s pure joy. On the other hand, I will ask and ask and ask again if I want help and no one seems interested. Both Grace and Faith are really great helpers, when they want to be. Like any other person on the planet they are also hard of hearing when they don’t want to be.

Be Nice

To everyone. This is hard. Because when I say everyone, I mean EVERYONE. Grace is the master at this one. She later brags about how nice she was to the terrible bully who everyone else hates. I think she goes out and looks for difficult people to be nice to so she can later report her good deeds. Whatever, I still give her credit.

Be Positive

Choose to live a positive life. This is a no brainer, right? Then why is it so hard? We often find ourselves being the host to our own pity parties. Faith woke up earlier this week and decided school was not for her. I told her I understood how she felt and didn’t want to get up either. She suggested we stay in my bed and snuggle all day. I liked that idea. Instead, I told her days like these are the days we should expect BIG things to happen but if we stay home we’ll miss them. As we walked to school I told her she could have any kind of day she wanted to have, it was her choice. Later that afternoon she told me she had the BEST DAY EVER. I never did find out why, but we both chose to have a positive day and expect greatness. And we got it.