Laugh at yourself first before anyone else can. ~ Elsa Maxwell
This is a simple habit but easy to forget in the thick of day-to-day.
1. Just turn on your favorite mix of music.
2. Turn it up loud.
3. Everybody dance while clearing the table and rinsing dishes.
Even arthritic mamas can do a low impact version. Watch the smiles light up all around. You’ll be surprised at how your early-evening attitude lightens too.
You are also accomplishing:
1. Exercise. Flylady recommends 15 minutes of loving movement. This certainly qualifies. Just 15 minutes making a dull task delightful.
2. Worship. If it’s praise music you have the volume turned up on.
3. And dishes are done lickety split!
Daily drudgery turns to delightful dancing.
Or maybe you’d rather apply the following from A Kiss Makes It All Better
…Just a little tip my husband and I have discovered.
Imagine the scene. Supper is finished but the dishes need to be done. One child is in a crying heap, melting away on the floor for a reason unknown. Another is happily blowing the train whistle at an adult-irritating pitch. The eldest makes herself heard from upstairs, her voice carrying loudly from the foyer. One child quietly watches the scene. The last is wondering where in the fridge the shredded cheese goes.
How do you handle the sensory overload? Sometimes I grip the sink and do a silent scream. Hodgepodgedad has been known to, with a smile, quote Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life. “Why’d we have to have all these kids anyway?”
Lately though, we pause for a kiss. Right in the middle of the craziness – we just plant one on each other. It’s a blessed stress reliever.
Try it. You’ll like it.
Whole-hearted, ready laughter heals, encourages, relaxes anyone within hearing distance. The laughter that springs from love makes wide the space around – gives room for the loved one to enter in. ~ Eugenia Price
LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!!! =) I have forgotten about this simple pleasure!!
We lovingly use that Jimmy Stewart line too, maybe a little more often than we should 😉 Love these ideas! How fun!
Kendra that is funny you lovingly use that Jimmy Stewart line too! Have fun dancing!
I like the authenticity of “grip the sink and silent scream”. I definitely have sensory issues 🙂 Boys make so much noise with their mouths and bodies! I’d give anything to hear a song from the mouth of a babe! We’ve been none to have one of our boys do push-ups to rid himself of energy at the end of the day. Right now not sure how my day is going to go….daddy leaving town and things that don’t normally irritate them are irritating them and it’s only 9am! I’m taking them for a swim, hoping to wear some muscles out!
Love the Jimmy Stewart line, we use it too! =)
Here’s another way to use the kiss: when our teenagers are hanging around while we’re trying to have a private conversation, my husband and I start hugging and kissing…clears the room instantly! =)
Kim, that new suggestion for the kiss make me LOL and slap my knee. Definitely using that one! Aren’t you smart!
I just love this.. the dancing, the screaming into the refrigerator, the It’s a Wonderful life quote…. and especially the moment with your honey in the midst of it all. Such great advice. I think I will try it tonight during our nighly after dinner chaos!