Face Trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness and triumph with humility

Early this morning... around 1:00 a.m. I was reading Pathways to Perfection by Thomas S. Monson to keep myself awake long enough to feed Joshua without falling asleep, I stumbled upon the source of my new bathroom decor quote that I got to hang in the kids bathroom downstairs so they can see this reminder often.

I absolutely loved Elder Holland's most recent Conference address, and this quote in President Monson's talk "Yellow Canaries" reminded me of his message.

"Can we not appreciate that our very business in life is not to get ahead of others but to get ahead of ourselves? To break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by our todays, to bear our trials more beautifully than we ever dreamed we could, to give as we have never given, to do our work with more force and a finer finish than ever-- this is the true idea: to get ahead of ourselves.
To live greatly, we must develop the capacity to face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and triumph with humility."

As I reflected on this, I thought of how curt I've been lately in the early morning hours with my kids who awake me with a flood of demands when all I want is to get some rest after a rough night. I recommitted to be more cheerful when fatigued and to be more grateful that I am blessed with a large family to "give to" even when I'm not always in the mood, and to enjoy my work as a mother, because my children will be gone before I know it.

Good things:

• The quote my mom hung on our walls growing up stuck with me until now when I need to apply it. "Cleaning and scrubbing can wait til tomorrow For babies grow up we've learned to our sorrow So quiet down cobwebs and dust go to sleep I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep"
• The rain is watering my peas, strawberries and lettuce so I don't have to:)
• Jacob did much better on the ISAT than he expected to
• Alyssa is chanting her ABC's in the background in random order
• I'm done with taxes