I wrote before of criticism and discouragement, and of a feeling to just give up and quit trying with all of the good things I am trying to do. It would be so easy to just give in to those thoughts. If you don’t try, if you don’t stretch yourself and put yourself out there, your chances of getting criticized or hurt are much smaller.

But what good would my life be if I didn’t try, if I didn’t do my best? It may be a less difficult or less painful life, but I don’t believe it would be worth it.

So in the midst of things being difficult this week, I tried to make a list of everything, just right in this moment, that make it all worth it.

– My daughter in a Sunday dress, bicycle helmet, and knee pads around her elbows (“just in case I fall, Mommy.”)

– These four little sillies:

– My 4-year-old, seeing me cough a little, brings me a lint-covered open cough drop. When I ask her where she found it, she tells me, “Under your bed. I saved it there for later.” Then, like a good nurse, she waits there until she sees me eat it.

– When I realize I haven’t seen the girls for a minute, I look for them and find them all in my closet putting on my clothes and shoes.

– My 2-year-old making Santa’s sleigh out of soggy Cheerios on the table this morning.

– This guy:

Enough said. :) (Happy Birthday, Baby.) :)

– He makes a beeline straight to me as soon as he gets home from a meeting to “give mommy a kiss,” and he usually arrives at said “mommy” with four girls clinging for dear life to him.

– Our little “destructo-bot” took her first halting steps last night, right to her daddy. :) Nothing in life feels quite like that.