How to make today great

  I was just wondering. How do I make today great? With all of the imperfections of Life and it's creatures, how do I get to the greatness? Life is always both. The best and the worst. So hard, and so easy. Good and bad. Ups and downs. Steps forward and setbacks.
  I woke up early and felt like a reasonable human being. This is rare for me! I had my outfit picked out, so I got dressed and started to feel ready for the day. I didn't know what today was going to bring when I picked the outfit. That decision was made in the dark, right before I closed my eyes.
We had multiple options. Go with family to their river house in Arizona for the weekend. Stay back at their house in California. Go back to check in on folks in Utah. And anything else that my husband could conjure up for us to go do.
  I just unpacked all of my make-up from storage, so I decided to put some on. Before breakfast. This feels so weird. But I wanted greatness, so I chose to get ready for it. Not that make-up equals great things. Not at all. It was the act of trying to look really great. It was the act of creativity, like my face was an artistic canvas to work with. Color, contour, create an effect - have a little fun. No one else was up yet anyway, except Ron.
  I ate my breakfast that I made the day before. I'm trying to eat right so I make myself an oatmeal and yogurt bowl every night. It soaks over night and is like a pudding in the morning. Some people here bought two dozen donuts the other day. I needed a plan so I could avoid the temptation.
  I usually have issues with mornings. I live with a morning man, who is always ready for the day before I am. Not today! (Yesterday I slept in until 8:30am, and got away with it because other family is here to distract Ron. I even put make-up on around 9am. But doing my hair just seemed like too much. I had to wait until after breakfast for that.)
  So I will count my victories no matter how tiny they are. I always make my bed now, it's a soothing part of my morning. Sometimes it's the biggest accomplishment I have before 8am. It makes the whole room look better, and I like the way it looks. It's not just a tidy bed, it's a whole mindset.
  All the little things add up, especially since I'm in such a limbo right now. Waiting for a start date on Ron's job. Waiting for the rest of the travel to move to Seattle in Washington. Not being able to work, or even look for work yet. I like mornings, they just start too early in my day. Being able to check on my favorite person in Costa Rica is helpful too. I start with a little message to my Momma, just a simple good morning text, or an email about a weird dream I had. That's my dose of love to perk me up a bit. Then I take time to reach out to other people who currently exist online, or in texts because I'm far away in California. People say it's good to call and not text so much. A call is good, but I wake up first now. In the morning I can't do algebra word problems. I can't remember which friends and family are on Pacific time, which are three hours behind me, and who is in Europe and already in the middle of their day. It's safer to send messages. Here's the algebra word problem: If Suzette wants some inspiration to write today, which of her friends are also writers? If she chooses Leigh in Costa Rica, what time is it for Leigh right now? Is it an hour ahead, or an hour behind, or the same. It's an hour behind me. What does that mean? It means I do everything first. Then I have to think even harder and ask myself if I remember if Leigh is also a morning person. If it's 8am here it's only 7am there. Will she be happy I tried to call at 7am her time? That is waaaay too much thinking for me in the morning.
  Then I feel ready for my day. Ready to cheer up my ten year old granddaughter who today woke up like I usually do. Not wanting to wake up, not ready to be cheery at all. I really felt for her grumpiness. It's the reason why I am working on my morning routine.
  I'm also working on the Love Your Life in 30 Days program. On day 16 it says that rituals can have a profound effect on how we feel about ourselves. It encourages me to create some routines to add power to my mornings. Maybe today is proof that it's working. I added the ritual of drinking water as the very first thing I do. I put a glass of water on the dresser so it would be harder to forget while in my groggiest moments. I have learned that a good morning starts with good planning the night before. Except I don't always think about the morning when I'm with family and watching a movie and getting sleepy. I just keep trying. That's all anyone can do, right? At the rate I'm going I will have to spend my mornings planning for my evenings to plan for my mornings. Ha!
  I don't know which Day it is in the free program, but there is a day that has an exercise about changing my story. It means that I have to stop telling myself and the world that I'm not a morning person. For me it means finding a balance between the lie that I'm a person who wakes up bright eyed and bushy tailed (what, like my goal is to be a squirrel??), and the hope that I can improve my morning routine of being dazed and confused and lost when I first wake up.
  Today it's not a lie! So I am writing about it. And look at me, it's not even 10am and I've already written in my blog.