January is one of those months

Seriously, does anyone else dislike January!? Every year I try to have a positive outlook about January.  It usually lasts about 5 days into inversion, no sunshine and gray snow and I am finished.

Whoever termed the word "Winter Wonderland" didn't actually live through a Utah January.  Maybe I am just having a bad attitude, but I don't think it is very wonderlandish.


This is what I feel like the world looks like right now 

Not too inviting right?  Interestingly the snow starts out so beautiful and white and then it just gets trampled on by people and animals and cars and snowplows who are kicking up dirt everywhere they go.

Sometimes that is how I feel about my days.  I start off great.  Brand new day, white like brand new snow.  As my day goes on little things dirty my snowy white outlook.  Sometimes the sun comes out and melts away some of the yuckyness.  (I made up that word). I am always grateful for a little sunshine.  Recently the sunshine of January has come in quite a few different forms.

Here are just a few ways that the sun was able to shine through in my life and remind me this week that I don't need to just focus on the gray dreary snow piles.  

* A thank you note from a student (these are rare)
* The Young Women in my ward
* A Visiting Teaching Interview where someone actually listened to how I was and motivated me to be better about fulfilling my calling as a VT.
* A sincere compliment from one of my supervisors at BYU.
* Playing duets with my piano students who are so excited to be able to play a "real song" like Ode to Joy in the "c position" 
* Being able to help my sister study for a test.  Something I know might have actually helped her. 
* A phone call from an old roommate.
* Chocolate cake (seriously).
* Finishing a craft project
* Getting a check in the mail from my escrow account that was overpaid.
* My mom
* Having lunch with my aunt and finally catching up.
* Wandering around a bookstore for an hour or more and then getting some new books with a gift card.
* New violin students.

Lets hope that I can make it through the rest of January and focus on the sunshine instead of the gray.  

 Truly, I'm not sure why I am so anxious to get to February anyway.  The month of "love" and myself don't have such a great track record.