reasons to smile

With everything that’s going on in our lives (or not going on, really is more like it), my stress levels are higher than are probably healthy. And even when our little people contribute to that stress, I’m thanking God for the comic relief they offer. This week, they’ve given me reasons to laugh. Loud.

One of my favorite things is to just listen while they’re playing together, especially if they don’t know I’m listening. That’s when I find gold. Like:

Where’s the floor? Daddy needs to Zumba.

There is no floor.

Okay, Daddy will Zumba in the bathroom.

My husband overheard that nugget while the kids were playing with the Dora house.

Then there was the declaration while they were coloring:

Brown is for Broncos.

Broncos are yucky!

We watch a *little* football in this house, and we are unashamedly Bears fans. We are teaching them well.

And every time our son is in the bath, he requests a shampoo mohawk from whichever adult is available. Then he yells, “Izzy, Mommy, come see, come see.”

Worth it every time.

And when I tell him to clean up his trucks, he organizes a parade.

I’m probably forgetting a dozen or more other moments from the week. But if I stopped to write them down, I’d probably still miss them.

So, today, I’m simply thankful that these two kids are in our house, in our lives, and that they give us as much joy as grief. Some days, it would be hard to rise from the mire without them.