Lesson Learned: Remember the ups during the downs

So this is actually a lesson I learned over the weekend as I was watching my little cousins for a few days. But it's about children, so I feel like it applies. First of all, my hat goes off to every mother out there. Holy moly. It is so much work. Especially one year olds. And three year olds.

Anyways, so I went into this weekend feeling like it wouldn't be that bad. I mean, I'm a first grade teacher. A cool first grade teacher. I turn on music from Frozen while we work at our desks. I let them have dance parties after a test. I call them bud. I'm fun.

But babysitting kids all day is a completely different story. 

There were moments when I felt like I was rocking it. The baby was napping, the older kids were reading, I was drawing with the younger kids, the dishes were done, the three year old told me she wanted me to stay forever, and everyone was happy. At other moments, I was tanking. Like when I didn't have a firm grip on his legs when changing his diaper and his foot (and my hand trying to stop his foot) went in the poop. Or when I slightly dropped him in the crib because my arms aren't long enough to reach over the side of the crib completely. Or when I made promises that I didn't follow through on, didn't monitor how much cookie dough was being consumed rather than made into cookies, or kept feeding the youngest Life cereal because that's all he would eat. 

This kind of up and down roller coaster seems to happen in all areas of my life. It happens in my teaching, it happens with my efforts to make and follow through with new goals, it happens with my testimony, it happens with my exercising, it happens with my self-esteem, it happened on my mission, it happens in my dating life...

Why is that? Why can't we always be up?

I don't think I really know the answer to this, but something I have learned is that, since ups and downs seem to inevitably happen, it is so crucial that we pay attention and notice when the ups are happening. Whether that means writing it down, putting it as a note in your phone, saying a quick prayer thanking Heavenly Father, telling someone about it, or something else, I feel like if we can take note of the fact that we are up, it will make all the difference when we are down. It will help us to remember that we were once up and that we can be up yet again. And be kind to yourself when you're down. Give yourself some credit, look to the past for when you were up, and push through.

Just something to digest.