Whew! Mama has been in a funk! In addition to getting sick and losing my voice entirely after Anson’s baseball tournament last week, I got double barrel pink eye.

Pink eye.

So in addition to not feeling amazing, now I also have to wear my glasses and can’t do up my eyes in any way so I look like a dead person.

But there is nothing better for your personal productivity than being forced to cancel all meetings because you can’t actually speak.

We had a really great family meeting earlier this week where we discussed our family culture and what we want to create in our home. Every day I send the kids out the door with the words ‘Work hard. Be nice. And have fun!’

My idea for the family culture / motto was to make sure we also embody those words in the house, at whatever level we can personally. For example, Archer working hard is going to look a bit different than Anson.

This simple family motto is helping me to snap out of my funks faster and get into positive action with less indecision.

I was starting to lose my temper with Marlowe because she didn’t want to go to school and wouldn’t get dressed for the day. It was 10 minutes to the bus and my temptation was to snap at her and make her feel bad to get her dressed. In fact, I threw some socks right at her in my mounting frustration.

And then I realized how out of alignment that was with the family culture I want to create. I snapped right out of it. I gave her the biggest hug, apologized for losing my temper, and asked her to help me by choosing an outfit so she wouldn’t feel rushed to get on the bus.

Later at dinner I asked Marlowe to share how fast we had turned the page and she snapped her little fingers and said ‘Like that.’

The power of a little family motto, embodied in the day to day. What is a power sentence, a motto, a trigger you can use to snap yourself out of a funk if you find yourself sliding?