Class President

I have a green chaise lounge that I love. LOVE. It sits in my nook with 7 windows. When I'm there I pretend that I am Rapunzel and am locked away in my castle. I was sitting there just now. My youngest son and I just did his school work. He is homeschooled and we were running a little behind today. His friends come home at 4:00 from public school and he likes to be ready to play with them. We are always done with our school work by then but today we were not so he brought his books to me and dropped them on the chair and begged to finish. When we were done and he ran outside, I paused to look around me.

There were his books at my feet. English 2. History 2. Journal.

And I am wearing this ridiculous lime green shirt because my oldest son decided it was "wear your school colors" day for our homeschool and he also declared the colors were lime green and navy blue. Since I have a speck of fashion sense, I don't actually own anything lime green because I don't currently need to stop traffic to pick up trash. I had to go to the store this morning to buy a lime green shirt.

So I sit here in my lime green shirt and I think, wow, do I have a great life. I am so blessed. I don't realize it very often. Usually I think that I need more and that I am longing for something that I don't have. However, there are moments (like just now) when I fully appreciate my blessings.

I have so much to be thankful for. My house is a mess. I didn't make dinner tonight. I have no make-up on. There are bills to pay and grass to mow. But I have amazing children who make me so happy. They drive me crazy most of the time but boy, do they make me laugh! I have friends that I can text and say, "I have a funny story to tell you" and they call me right away and we laugh.

Laughter. I could not live without laughter.

Once, a long time ago, someone hurtful said to me, "Do you think everything is a joke?"

He was being especially cruel at the time but I've thought about that moment often and I've wanted to go back and say, "Yes. Yes, I do. Because if I can laugh and have fun and smile despite all of the bad that life throws at me, then I think that is pretty awesome. If I can take a bad situation and still find something to smile about...if there is joy to be found in misery...then yes, I choose the joy. I choose the laughter."

My sons were running for class president last week. The youngest said that if he were elected he would fight for better school lunches.

I could have gotten upset that my pb&j just wasn't good enough. Instead, I just laughed.
And I voted for him.