Be Happy!  Is it easy?  Not always.

Find JOY in the hard times!  Is it easy?  Absolutely not.

About a month ago, I was having a really hard time finding joy.

My husband has been working long hours.  He works in the HVAC industry as an installer.  What happens when the weather gets warm????  He gets really busy and we don’t see much of him since there are so many jobs being scheduled.  He leaves before we all get up in the morning and most times doesn’t get home until the kids are already asleep for the night. This is a LONG time to be the “on duty” parent without any breaks.  I was in full pity party mode.

Don’t even get me started about all the toys!  They were everywhere. EVERYWHERE!!!  It was hard to walk from one end of the house to the other.  I’m talking itty bitty Legos.  Ouch, my poor feet!  Games with missing pieces, stuffed animals, books, blankets, pillows, and much more where just strewn about the house. So tempting to grab a big garbage bag and start chucking!

Dishes!  Ugh!  Not only was the sink piled high but every counter in the kitchen was covered in dirty dishes!  We didn’t have much left in the cupboards.  All the plates, cups, and bowls were dirty.  I’m not even sure how that happened!  I try not to let the dishes get too out of hand but I failed miserably this time.

The kids were getting on each others last nerve.  It was just a crummy day.  We all somehow made it until bedtime.  My kids finally fell asleep.  It was the first time during the day that I felt like my brain and body could relax.  I sat in my chair and scrolled through Facebook.  As I was feeling my body finally starting to calm down, I reflected on the day.  My husband was still at work and I had lots of time to think.

I immediately felt defeated!  My kids deserved better than how our day had gone.  I’m an over thinker by nature.  So I thought back to every moment during the day.  It was exhausting.  I vowed the next day would be better.

The next day, the kids and I had a pow wow.  I apologized for my attitude the day before.  They apologized for their behavior.  We decided right then that we were going to try and have HAPPY HEARTS that day.  I blasted some music from our Amazon Music and we had a dance party to clean the house.  It still looked messy at the end of the day but it looked a lot better than when we started.  I had a positive attitude and was upbeat and smiling and in return my kids rewarded me with smiles and laughter!

What changed between the two days??

First, I prayed about the day.  I admittedly don’t do this as often as I should.  Then, I intentionally tried to change my outlook.  My husband and I are home owners.  So the pigsty mess was in a home that we own!  Living paycheck to paycheck while paying off debt is tricky.  Grocery runs are sometimes interesting.  Our dirty kitchen was proof that we were getting enough food to eat.  This didn’t necessarily make me feel better about our gigantic mess but it did help me put things into perspective.  Even if I wasn’t feeling positive, I pretended that I was.  The feeling soon followed.  My positivity then rubbed off on my kids and because I intentionally made the shift, it made our day so much better.  The whole “fake it until you make it” mentality worked.

Now, I wish I could say that we never have bad days anymore.  I can’t.  Now that we are in summer and don’t have much of a schedule, the bad days happen more frequently than when we are doing school.  But we are a work in progress.  We have less bad days that REMAIN bad days.  We can usually flip the day around.  I call that a win!

So, finding JOY in the pigsty is what we did.  Joy is all around us.  Sometimes it’s harder to find than other times.  It’s always there, though.  We just aren’t looking for it.  If we can change our mindsets, we can start having better days.  We have better days and we feel better inside.  We feel better inside and we treat other people better.  We treat other people better and they have a better day.  Start the ripple!  Spread the happiness!

Find the JOY!