A Week of No Complaining Day 7: But I’m Not Complaining

The day is not yet over but I don’t think or post about my blog on Sundays so I am writing now and setting to post on Sunday. (How cool is that!) This has been a useful exercise. I will spare you the “This has changed my life” comment because I am pretty sure once I am PMSing I will allow a complaint or two to slip out.

My husband completed our taxes today which just about assures that there will be a minor fight today (There was…sigh) So much tension to send the government information it all ready has and only desires so if we get something wrong they can charge us more…sigh…(was that a complaint or a statement of fact?)

I did learn I tend to use complaining as an ineffective method of communicating with my kids. That most of my complaints are about petty, temporary circumstances due to living with maturing people. That when I am focus on things that cause me to be grateful I am far less likely to complain even if life that day isn’t perfect. That a little self-control on my part can contribute greatly to the overall peace of the household.

If I wanted to build on this experience it would be with A Week of Praise and Thanksgiving, focusing on the good God has allowed in my circumstances, including the thing the maturing people I live with do right, well or with honor. That might be an interesting and worthwhile challenge. Something to think about…..

How was your experience with not complaining?

I am offering a contest (special opportunity) to e-card users, leave a comment 1 entry, write a post and link either in a comment . Twitter, tweet, facebook, stumble etc 2 more enteries, just leave a comment telling what you did. 2 lucky randomly chosen winners will get 500ec’s each. All entrants will get a shout out link in a summery post Wenesday.

A Week of No Complaining: Day 2

 I am well into the first 48 hours of the16 8 hours of no complaining. This is what I have learned so far. I think there are a lot of things wrong in my world. Little things, annoying things, people related things. Mostly because of the people I am related to.

I don’t grumble about the state of the world but the state of my kid’s rooms. I don't gripe about the economy as a whole as much as the tenuous state of my husband’s job, working for a “global company that is moving all its jobs off shore but still expects the tax benefits of being an American company”. The teen not taking out the garbage without being told is a drip, drip, drip of aggravation on my soul.

My world is small and my complaints are petty. I think this may be because my prayers are petty and my view of God is smaller than I previously realized. Being aware of what I regularly grumble about, the habit of kvetching (love that word) if you will, has slowed me down enough to think about why I do what I do.

What do you think is worth complaining about?

I can’t get the Mr Linky to work. Sigh

Of you want, try not complaining for 24 hours. I would love to hear about your experiences.

I am offering a contest (come on) to e-card users, leave a comment 1 entry, write a post and link either in a comment . Twitter, tweet, facebook, stumble etc 2 more enteries, just leave a comment telling what you did. 2 lucky randomly chosen winners will get 500ec’s each. All entrants will get a shout out link in a summery post next week.

Aging With Adventure: A Week of No Complaining

I have been thinking about this for a while: A week of no complaining. 7 days, 168 hours, 10,080 minutes, 604,800 seconds free of whining, moaning, grumbling…..see the list below. I have been dreaming, scheming and planning some way to enforce this on my family. Since I can’t do that I will try it for myself. Starting Sunday March 8^th at 12AM EST until Saturday March 14^th At 11:59:59PM the adventure in not complaining will commence.

I expect this will be a glorious failure, on the par with the Charge of the Light Brigade or the Apollo 13 moon mission. It should be noted that everyone died in the Charge of the Light Brigade, so I am thinking this adventure will be more Apollo 13ish.

Would you care to give this adventure a try? Perhaps for a 24 hour period instead for 10,080 minutes (that does sound like a lot of time not to deprecate)? I have a Mr. Linky and I might even able to figure out how to use it by Monday.

I will be offering a contest (bribe) to e-card users, leave a comment 1 entry, write a post and link either in a comment or the hopefully up Mr. Linky 2 entries. Twitter, tweet, facebook, stumble etc 2 more enteries, just leave a comment telling what you did. 2 lucky randomly chosen winners will get 500ec’s each. All entrants will get a shout out link in a summery post the following week.

PS: I am so not telling my family I am doing this!!

·To Complain is to: To express an objection and/or

remonstrate, grumble, whine, find fault, disapprove, accuse, deplore, criticize, denounce, dissent, cavil, charge, bring charges, report adversely on, reproach, oppose, contravene, whimper, nag, fret, repine, protest, fuss, moan, growl, grump, murmur, mutter, make a fuss about, take exception to, object to, deprecate, enter a demurrer, demur, expostulate, carp, attack, refute, countercharge, air a grievance, lodge a complaint, howl, grouse, kick, grouch, gripe, grunt, beef, bellyache, crab, squawk, tattle, kick up a fuss, make noises about, raise a howl, raise a fuss, make a stink, moan and groan, kvetch; see also accuse, censure, oppose

Antonyms sanction, approve*, countenance. * copied from Your Dictionary.Com