The change: choosing to smile and laugh more.

After a night with no sleep and cranky children I was feeling a little “worn” today. I was sitting with my children having oatmeal for breakfast, and we were talking about our tasks for the day. Sighs and groans started to proceed out of their mouths. I wanted to stop and discipline them for being so cranky, then I had to remind myself that they learn from their Momma whom they see each and every day.  I was reminded of the verse:

Rejoice evermore

This is something that has been one thing I wish I would have done more of in my life.  Especially when life was filled with a constant circle of nursing, changing diapers, feeding toddlers, no sleep, etc.  Life was  busy, well life is always busy no matter what you do, but at that time I was just in survival mode.  Most of it was a big blur.  Looking back my children probably saw more of mommy being tired and worn and probably a little bit cranky.  That is something I need to change.

Why make the change:

Have you checked yourself in the mirror lately?  What kind of feeling are people getting from you when they see you?  Are you bringing a sense of positiveness to peoples life by your smile?  Or are you bringing more tense,stressful things to the room?  Are people always wondering what type of “mood” you will be in next?  Or are they excited to be around you?

A smile or a laugh is contagious.  Being around people that are smiling and laughing will bring healing and happiness to your life.  It will lower stress levels, it will turn a bad day into good.  It will help change your mindset on things.

Smiles can:

• break down the cold walls of indifference
• warm a lonely heart
• influence choices of people
• brighten your mood
• improve your outlook
• help you to make positive choices in life
• give a person who is suffering, hope
• show you have a great attitude–even in mistakes and failures find the humor

When we go out I try and teach my children to always smile at people.  I tell them that your little smile might just change the way a persons day goes.  That person might be going through a rough patch in their life and seeing you smile or laugh might just touch their heart.  Even give the lost a glimmer of hope in life.

 My hope for them now is to see me smile more.  Now that life is a little more manageable, I feel like I have a second to breathe and think about things more.  It is times like this that I sit and be silly with them.  I smile and kiss my babies more.  I want them to remember Momma as a hard working woman who smiled when she went about her daily duties.

I want them to remember my smile.

How to make the change:

 

Smiles don’t just happen.  You can’t just set it on your face and keep it there without thinking about it.  You need to consciously think to smile.  When things start to go bad, put on that smile.  Force yourself to “fake it till you make it”   By putting a smile on and laughing at your mistakes and failures will enable you to let go of the stress of dealing with things.  It will help you to put a positive spin on the situation.  Over time you will learn to just naturally smile and laugh all the time.

When you are with people around you that are not smiling be the first one.  Don’t wait for someone else to initiate the smile, go for it.  Show them that your smile means that you will give them the attention they deserve.  It also helps bolster open body language, and reassures the other person of your sincerity. They will be more likely to open up to things when they see that you generally care and are interested.

Your smile is the greatest gift of all.

Are you up for the challenge to smile and laugh more??

 

We had my daughters sweet sixteenth birthday party this past week, thus the reason for me being non-existent online.  We did a birthday party/open mic night at our home.  Once a month my teenagers do an open mic night at our home anyways to help encourage others in their pursuit of music ministry and this happened to be at the same time as our scheduled open mic.  It was a great turnout, fun gathering of friends and family.

We did a Mexican buffet for food.  It included:

• nacho chips
• nacho cheese
• rice
• fajita chicken meat
• taco hamburger meat
• refried beans
• lettuce
• green peppers
• tomatoes
• pico de gallo–homemade delicious!!
• guacamole–homemade delicious!!
• salsa
• sour cream
• ranch
• black olives

We had coolers filled with cans of pop and bottled water.  We used snow to keep the drinks cold.  We have plenty of that in the North here:)

 

 

This is my teens band–Redemption.  They really know how to rock it.  They did a great job.  Then after they play their songs, they open it up to any teens that want a chance to play.  We had quite a few talented teens show off their skills.  It was a fun night.

To decorate the walls of our basement, we bought 20 plastic tablecloths from Oriental Trading.  Her colors were black,white, turquoise, and purple.  So we alternated around the room the different colors.  Over the candy buffet we hung 4 tablecloths on top of each other.  Then we cut through the top three of them about 3/4 of the way up and then braided them about 3 inches down.  It gave the walls a really cute backdrop.

We had fun making our candy buffet.  You can view how we did it here.  We also made a cupcake tower for the 100 cupcakes that we had.  You can view how we did that here.

Since our basement is not finished my goal was to cover every square inch with party decorations.  We got all the walls covered with the tablecloths, but the ceiling was next.  I ordered 350 balloons from Oriental Trading and we blew them all up.  Yes we did!!!  It wasn’t as bad as I originally thought it would be.  I gained a small blister from tying them, but we did it.  We used fishing line to string the balloons onto and then stapled gunned them to the rafters.  We then hung icicle christmas lights in between the balloons.  It gave it a pretty glow.

We also made about 20 tissue paper poms.  Hung those with fishing line.  You can view here how I did that.

We decided to make a photo booth for all of her friends to take crazy pictures.  We made a picture frame out of 2 layers of posterboard with dowels hot glued in between them to make it sturdy.  We then bought Dollar store props.  Glasses, hats, feather boas, big glasses, hair extensions, etc.  We made sure to keep the colors with the theme of the party.  

We decorated the photo booth with the same backdrop as the Treats table.  So simple to make and looks great in photos.

I apologize for the dim color on these photos.  The windows were covered in tablecloths and it gave the room a bluish/purple glow and I did not change my camera settings.  We wrapped tulle strips around christmas lights to wind up the basement poles.

As you can see we got creative when it came to seats.  We took out all of our 15 passenger van seats!!!  People loved them!!  Thank goodness for a large family:)

Here are more of the balloons with fishing line.  My son did a great job of patiently stringing those all up.  Thanks Collin.

We cut out letters from black posterboard and then covered them in blue and purple glitter.  We made the following signs:

• Lauren’s sweet sixteen
• photo booth
• treats
• open mic
• party’s this way

I cut the letters out of scrap paper first and then cut them out of posterboard.The little girls had fun decorating them.  Glitter, glitter, everywhere:)

We actually made the rest of these words downstairs on the basement floor, which made most of the glitter get on the unpainted floor.  It looked really neat with the christmas light reflection and the bits of glitter on the floor:)

 

what a great time that we had.  It was a long day but a well worth it party.  I think all my little ones enjoyed the candy buffet the best, I just kept seeing them run back and forth to picking up a new piece of candy:)  Definitely a once in awhile party.  But we did it inexpensively.  Made all the decorations ourselves, made all the food and most of the treats ourselves.  It made it a budget friendly birthday that turned out to be special.

Happy Sweet Sixteen Lauren, excited to see what the Lord has in store for you!!