My inspiration for this post comes from a recent experience around the dinner table. Hardly profound and the lesson I learned that night was really quite simple – but sometimes simple lessons are the best!

Everyone was happily downing a glamorous and, might I add, exceptionally healthy meal of tator tots and chicken nuggets, when a certain adorable little girl in the family suddenly sneezed. The tsunami force behind that sneeze left a ginormous amount of slippery, slimy, mucous hanging precariously from her little nose. Everyone instantly froze into a simultaneous moment of silence. Little girl quickly tried to right her unfortunate situation by brushing her arm across her face, which only accomplished in leaving a giant snotty streak up the side of her arm.

Battling a wave of nausea, I rose from the table without a word and walked toward the bathroom in search of some much needed cleaning supplies. When I reached the kitchen portion of my journey, I screeched to a stop to avoid stepping on some sort of bodily excrement the dog had left in the middle of the room. Yes, you read that correctly. A giant turd sitting randomly and nonchalantly right in the middle of my freshly washed floor. I felt my cheeks flush and the pressure rise as I began those deep breathing exercises they teach you in anger management classes. Upon my arrival in the washroom, I discovered that the youngest in the family had left something bearing a striking resemblance to what the dog had left me in the kitchen. At least he’d found the appropriate room! I quickly cleaned those messes up before marching back to the table to clean up the first mess. FINALLY, messes mayhem dealt with, I sat down once again, to my lovely kale and cranberry salad. I was clearly impressed by my resilience to handle disgusting situations and ability to get mind over matter! The fortitude I have gained since I first became a parent twelve years ago!

Our table back to a respectable normal, we all resumed the usual dinner routine when suddenly a loud gassy rumble from little brother’s corner of the room brought me back to the reality of what life with three kids can look like. As he met my disapproving glare with those twinkling brown eyes and infectious belly laugh, I succumbed. My eyes met my husbands across the table and our heads fell into our hands as we burst into hysterical laughter. Then I remembered an excerpt from a parenting book I am reading by Zig Ziglar where he talked about choosing humor over anger and irritation whenever possible. You know, being a parent can be downright disgusting and sometimes you just gotta laugh! Even in scripture we are told that laughter is as good as medicine.

Ziglar is right. Humor seems to be a God-given gift and one that can eliminate stress, frustration, and irritation. Laughing. It’s one of my new life goals as a parent! Whenever possible, I plan to laugh. Oh, and possibly another parenting goal might be to work on developing some good table manners.