I used to be a morning person. I used to wake up and get the baby and start the day with more or less, a smile. That was two kids ago. Now, I have to wake up and drink a cup of coffee, a really big cup, before I go from groggy and grumpy to ready to tackle the day ahead. Coffee is gooooood. 

Needless to say, before I had a chance to take a sip of my coffee we had a child that needed an attitude adjustment. My four year old son decided that he didn't have to clean up his "camping" blankets from his sleeping place in the living room after a night of family movies. He openly refused to listen or even acknowledge my warnings. Ugh! A huge pet peeve of mine is being ignored. I will NOT stand for that at all!

In a collective voice, that in no way reflected my frustration, I told him, "Now, or be sent to your room with no morning cartoons." It worked. Well, kind of. He grabbed his blanket and went to his room with no crying, fit pitching, no him screaming "uuggghhhhh" as he slams his balled up fists down by his sides and stomps off like he normally does. Nice! We resumed the morning with me drinking coffee and them eating pancakes with sprinkles and apple chips with peanut butter. No yelling! 

When hubby got up this afternoon for work, I gave him a tall mug of coffee which he places on the carpet beside the couch. Anyone who has kids just knows that is a big wopping no no. One of the older two children not only knocked it down but some how managed to make it look like a coffee explosion all on the front of my light beige couch. Who knew? It would normally be a knee-jerk reaction for me to raise my voice demanding to know which child failed to inform us of the accident. I laughed as my husband looked at me puzzled. He's thinks I'm going crazy... 

I couldn't help but thinking that, it's just a couch. At least no one got burnt by the scalding coffee. I simply told the children that they didn't know it was there, but once they noticed it they should of told me. Then I proceeded to remind my husband to not be so careless. That's like blowing down a brick wall with a dust buster. 

There was really nothing too exciting or dramatic that happened today. Almost yelled at the dog, but caught myself. I also noticed that with my attitude adjustment, my husband got up in a better, more playful mood. That was a nice change in this month's atmosphere. Anything to help eliminate stress, sign me up!

I recently came across this article on FaceBook that sent me to  http://theorangerhino.com/ where I read about the aftereffects of one whole year without yelling. Seems easy right? Yeah, not to me. This was coming from a mother with four children; I have three. As horrible as it sounds, yelling is there every day to aid me in my frustrations. No one likes to admit that they yell, but we all do it. Could you imagine going a whole year without it?? Reading over the wonderful things on that site inspired me. They said to "publicly announce" your goal/challenge, that it will help you succeed in it. 

Well, here I am world. This is my announcement. I too want to challenge myself to one whole year of no yelling! Oh, just typing that gives me the chills. I'm by no means an angry person, but I get angry at times. More so at my husband for his lack of understanding my thought processes and the kids for NEVER putting their dirty clothes in the hamper leaving me to wash the same one pair of clean jeans 5 times because neither they nor I can tell by it's location if it is dirty or not. 

OK, the dirty clothes thing doesn't get me "angry" just frustrated. The dog on the other hand, she gets me angry. She's potty trained, well behaved, but she likes to run because she is a beagle. So every now and then she gets mad at me for getting on to her for running away and she'll poop in the house when I'm sleeping. As a light sleeper, the smell wakes me up at 2am... you don't know yelling until you wake up a sleepy momma with something other than her children. Oh boy! 

So if the little petty things can set me off, I have to ask myself, am I up for the challenge??? Do I have the will power to walk away for a minute and calm down without acting rashly? Why yes, yes I can. It will be hard at times, I don't expect it to be easy and as you follow me, you'll get to hear my other wacky, loving, horrible, messy, crazy stories that most mothers can relate with.