For those of you that are just tuning in for the first time! Welcome. For those of you that are not – feel free to skip down to the next paragraph. If you’re here for your very first Megan’s Mosaic blog post, here’s some background information that may be helpful (feel free to read my “about” page as well!”) – I teach high school English full time as my main career. Yes, blogging and Instagramming & coaching cheerleading are my side hustles, but I spend a good chunk of my time teaching teenagers. It’s a blessing and a curse (but mostly a blessing (on the good days)). A few weeks ago, my students and I were in the thick of our first unit of the year – poetry. We read and analyzed and beat numerous poems to their pulps until they could no longer be of any more use…to which we promptly tossed them aside and started anew with a fresh poem. Joy. One poem in particular that we read is called “The Cure” by Ginger Andrews. In the poem, the narrator is lying around, feeling like a vegetable (me after 5 straight episodes of Gilmore Girls, amirite?!). Her sister calls to relay the message that she’s just finished speaking with their Aunt Bertha, who drones on and on about bland ole Arkansas and life on Catfish Lane (so sorry if you live there). Aunt Bertha, she reports, has been suffering from a case of the mulleygrubs. What are the mulleygrubs, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. The mulleygrubs are when you just feel a whole lot of blah. You know – meh. eh. The mulleygrubs are when you just feel like poop. You can be negative, or depressed, or bored, or all the above. The cure for the mulleygrubs, according to Aunt Bertha, is to bake a cake. Or put on a red dress. Now, I know that y’all are with me. I have at least 3 cases of the mulleygrubs a week. And, yes, sometimes I need an entire pint (or two) of Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food all to my self. But if we’re being honest here – that momentary comfort usually ends with me feeling worse than before (and yet I do it over and over again…but alas).  So, if you ever feel like YOU have a case of the mulleygrubs, here’s some positive things you can do to combat those dark, pesky, no-good feelings: 1.Go outside. The outside world is great. Take a nice, 15 minute walk and look at all the nature. Also, don’t take your phone with you. Unless you’re a woman and you’re alone. Then take your phone and your pepper spray and maybe also your dog.  2. Take a shower if you haven’t taken one today. 3. Drink a gatorade or a water. Hydration Nation. 4. Eat a healthy ish snack. Like a banana or an orange or a granola bar. Stay away from the ice cream!!! 5. Post something nice on someone’s Facebook wall. Or on your on wall.  6. Go to Spotify and search up your favorite playlist and play it out loud at full volume (I recommend 2000’s hip hop or pop song instrumentals. Both are great!!). 7. Hug your dog. No dog? Go buy one. Dogs are great. 8. Get out of your pajamas and put on real clothes. CLEAN clothes. 9. Do one tiny thing on your to-do list, even if it’s something small like brush your teeth. 10. Bake your favorite dessert (Aunt Bertha was right. This is helpful). 11. Pray about it. 12. Make a game plan for the rest of the day or for tomorrow and stick to that plan at least 75% of the way through. 13. Pray one more time.   How do you get over a case of the mulleygrubs? Feel free to drop me a line below 🙂