If you were to go through a photo album of my life, you would find many of my silly happy faces. This one was from when I was turning my oldest son into Napoleon by wrapping all his dyed hair in perm rods so he could win the Mr Wildkat contest, which he did. Somewhere in the last couple of years, I lost my silly happy face. Oh it would peek out now and again, but I let the little foxes in my garden overtake me. (That's for another day).
Around the first of the year, I decided I wanted to be positive and happy. So, I watched the Secret a couple of times. Something just clicked. The gratitude, dreaming about what you want, the genie principle. It just all felt right. I decided I wanted to be happy. First of all, I declared my life perfect. 'Cause it almost is anyway. And hey, the life I have is mostly the life I created, so I must want it, therefore it is perfect. And if I want something else, well I can reach for that too. Besides, as a perfectionist, if I declare my life perfect, then I cannot possibly cry that it is not. Genius.
I realized I don't allow myself much fun with my kids either. Oh there is a spontaneous moment here or there, but I just made a mental note to watch out for fun moments. I got one last night.
This is my youngest a couple of years ago. She is all sunshine and smiles. Last night, after a very long day, while I was putting away groceries, she picked up all the bags off the floor and tossed them in the air and declared it was snowing. It was after bedtime. Then (me not paying attention) she wadded up all the bags into balls and began throwing them at me declaring a snowball fight. I threw a few at her and we had a laugh. Then we had family prayer and sent everyone to bed and I went back to the kitchen. But she came around the corner and brought her sister and they attacked me with more snowballs. The dad tried to protest as I normally would do. It was bedtime. When it is bedtime, you cannot throw make believe snow balls in the kitchen! But we three girls just ignored him and had our snowball fight. We laughed and had snow much fun and then they went up to bed. I felt so happy after something so simple. Yep, I like taking advantage of the moments. They put a smile on my face.
THAT put a smile on MY face! We probably have a little too much spontaneity at our house, given that we all have an overdose of Type 1 in the mix. But our girls will never say we didn't have FUN!
ReplyDeleteI hope the kitchen snowballs didn't make puddles on the floor . . . :-)