This stay-at-home-mom thing is pretty much the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. The ONLY reason why it's hard, is because there's NEVER been a time in my life where I couldn't just do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, no matter the time or day. That's a HARD transition...and something that's taken me TIME to adjust to and figure out. It's amazing how becoming a mother does get your creative juices flowing with HOW to find that time for yourself, no matter how little the time may be.

Because of that very limited ME time, it can be hard for me to stay in "positive" thought mode and get out of my "complaining" funk. But, it doesn't help that I'm sleep deprived and CRAVING some major stillness and alone time that lasts longer than 2 minutes.

Yeah...that only child thing...I definitely struggle with NOT having enough ALONE time. Yep...my entire life...right until I birthed C, I got plenty of it. ;)

So when time does open up for me, I LOVE to paint the word joy...

I LOVE to doodle the word joy...

When I visually paint or doodle the word JOY,I truly SEE that JOY painting or JOY doodle all day long in my head, and it helps me keep that JOY focus so much more throughout the day. It's amazing how this works...it's like a vision board...it's just there, always popping up...so cool!

I also LOVE to write out my joys (when I'm not SO tired at night) once my last kiddo is sleeping soundly for the night. I'll dim the lights, hop into bed and get all comfy and cozy and I'll start to think back through the day of all the things that made me smile and warmed my heart. Then I'll start writing them down.

It's SO important for me to keep this JOY attitude, not only for myself, but for my little family as well. I really wanna stay more focused on the good that fills my life, rather than the lack. Because, man it's SO freakin' easy to stay focused on that lack. NOT GOOD!

I strive to BE a more JOY filled mama so that way my inner happiness will have my kiddos and husband JOY filled and focused on all the good that fills their life, too!! And, yes, some days are better than others.

When I listen to this song, called Good Life, from One Republic, over and over again while driving around town with my kiddos, it's a GRRREAT reminder that there really IS so much to FEEL GOOD about!! :)

And all that FEEL GOOD shows when I start writing.The JOY starts FLOWING. And, I'm talkin' F L O W I N G!!! It's amazing!! Because, when I first start, I really don't think there was much...maybe 4 or 5 things.

I guess I'm just SO tired and SO in the mental funk of just DO-DO-DOing so much for my little familywhere I feel like my head is barely out of the water, it doesn't seem possible that SO.MUCH.JOY had filled my day.

Wow, it's amazing how much I forget because, yes, when I sit down and start thinking over the day and what made me smile and what made my heart sing with love, there are pages and pages and pages from just ONE day!

ONE DAY!!!!

Just check them all out...

One page...

Two pages...

And, two more pages...

Five pages filled with all the JOY that filled my day. WOW! WOW! WOW!

This happens EVERY time I sit down at the end of the day to think about all my joy's. There's even times I had completely forgotten about a JOY (s) that made me smile and it was brought back to mind that night.

And when I'm done, reading over all that JOY that filled my day, I'm connected with the thought that, "Man, when you really think life is hard and you're just trying to survive the long, mommy, multi-tasked, filled day, there really is SO much more JOY in the day than I could ever imagine!! Keep writing that JOY, Renee! Keep writing it!!"

JOY outnumbers STRESS and those,"life is hard..this sucks," thoughts EVERY.SINGLE.TIME!

I used to write gratitudes down and I do still love doing that, but it's when I write all these JOYs out, I found myself SMILING so big and my body tingle with happiness even more.

So, if you're like me, and tend to focus and only see how hard the day is while doing SO much for others and you really wanna focus more on all the awesomeness that does fill your day, try painting, doodling, listening to JOY music and/or writing out your joys at the end of the day (and, of course, take pictures, too!! something I'm known to do a lot of everyday!! ;))

I bet, you, too, will see that life is full of SO much more FEEL GOOD, JOY than you could ever imagine!!

And, if you want a little bit more inspiration, check out Sadie's post, over on her blog, All Natural Me, where she shows (with a video) how she journals all the gratitude and JOY that fills her heart...daily! SO, SO inspiring and heart-felt! :)

So tell me...

How do you keep your focus on JOY when life gets busy and has you juggling responsibilities for others all day and night?

Here's to wishing you a weekend filled with JOY!

See you Monday (or the following week...I'm going to work on getting my e-newsletter up and running again so I can give you more FREE fabulous tips...if you followed me on Facebook, I'm going to put these tips in my newsletter from now on, since Facebook isn't letting me connect to everyone anymore. So, if you wanna get these awesome, creative tips, sign up here!)

Until next time...

Life IS so full of JOY...SAVOR it up!