If You're Happy and You Know It...

"If you're happy and you know it clap your hands.  If you're happy and you know it clap your hands.  If you're happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it.  If you're happy and you know it clap your hands."

Seems easy enough, right?  But for some people everything is so complicated and messy and miserable.  Some people think their world is falling apart when happiness is right under their nose.  Sure, we all have bad days where everything seems to go wrong and situations happen that make us angry.  We're all human, those days are going to happen, but YOU create your own happiness.  You have to choose to let things go and not let them hinder you from living a happy life.  Did you eat supper tonight?  Do you have a warm bed to crawl into? Is your family healthy? By those three things alone, you are already more blessed than most people in the world.  

Today I had to email my husband to call my cell phone until I answered.  My daughter hid it somewhere, yet again, and  I found it under the kitchen sink, yet again. My parents and two of my siblings stayed with us for New Years in our two bedroom apartment. My brother and sister slept in A's room with her and my parents slept in the living room on our futon from our college years.  I know plenty of people that would rather them stay in a hotel for lack of space and to save on the clutter from extra bags and bedding.  Around the second night I found myself getting a tad anxious.  I like order - A place for everything and everything in its place.  I don't like extra pillows and blankets laying out, or extra shoes and socks stranded by the front door. 

 Let me backtrack a little.  Earlier that day my dad took my husband, sister, and myself to see The Hobbit at the movie theater.  If you haven't seen it it's definitely a must see. For those of you who have seen it, do you recall the scene where all the dwarves invade Bilbo's house and pantry and  they are loud and eating all of his food?  He's getting frustrated and Gandolf says, "Bilbo, it's just a merry gathering."  That's what I had to tell myself.  It's just a merry gathering!  They don't get to visit all the time and we live in an apartment.  So, yes things are going to be a little cramped and probably messy.  But it won't last forever and I can put my home back in order.  And once that minivan pulls out I'll be looking forward to  them coming back anyway.   

So I forgot about the extra socks and shoes and made the decision to be happy.  Besides, my brother and sister were begging me to play a game with them.  And how can you not be happy, no matter what the mess around you, when your entire family is in stitches from an old-fashioned family board game?  :)

"A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit." -Proverbs 15:13