Searching For A Smile

Not all weeks in the suburbs are easy.  The weather gets you down, bills keep coming due, kids get sick, migraines hit,the furnace tanks, and personal stuff that’s even too hard for me to write about happens. Little things start to add up and wear on you.  Just run you down.  Way down.  A good cry might help.  For about a minute.  So does a big fat reality check. Life is not that bad.  The sun will shine again and all that crap jazz. 

What does help?  How do you shake off the gloom and see the silver lining? How about some little reminders of what made you smile during the week.  So today, a list of five little things that made me smile and helped me survive my life in the suburbs this week.

1.  This Face.

We are adding to our family, bringing home a Blue Great Dane Puppy in just a few weeks.  Last weekend we went to see the gorgeous litter!  We know we’re getting a male pup, and this is one of those sweet, sweet faces.  This little guy, he made me smile, and even giggle a little.

2.  I was at a Shell Station handing out Gas Cards, trying to make other people’s days a little bit brighter.  What happened was quite the opposite.  Some very sweet, quite senior gentleman, was caught checking me out and making it quite clear that he would like to “fill my tank”?  Um what?  So rude that it was funny. So ridiculous that all I could do was laugh.  No thank you sir!

3. Cheer girls!  YUP!  I’m a Cheer Mom through and through.  My oldest had their first cheer competition this past weekend.  Did they win?  Not by a long shot.  Did the effort, the work and the smiles on their faces translate into the crowd?  Did their joy spread to me?  For those three and half minutes it sure did.  Pride, joy and happiness all rolled into one.  Thanks for the smile BlueEyes.

4. I stole a chocolate bar.  Okay not really. But late one night after the entire family had gone to bed, I sat by myself with my laptop on, the Young and the Restless playing in the background and snuck myself a full size candy bar out of that Halloween bowl.  I did this with just enough guilt to bring a smile to my face.  A grown up ass woman sneaking chocolate in the middle of the night and watching soaps?  How cliché!

5. A delivery!  Last month we went to Turks and Cacios.  Already it seems like some hazy dream, and then yesterday, a sweet delivery.  A simple fridge magnet with some of our favourite moments of the week collected.  Memories of the beach and dreams of future trips are always a good idea.

Life in the suburbs isn’t always a bed of roses, but if you look really hard you can usually find something to smile about.  Hope you can all find your smiles today!