#5: Smile

"Smile."  It's Dale Carnegie's shortest principle but I'm not going to lie... it wasn't the easiest.  Circumstances were not ideal for my experiment this week.  At some point during the week, Alan, Tyler, and I all suffered from colds and Tyler and I also battled stomach bugs. Still, the show must go on so here are this week's highlights:

• I think Tyler has been secretly reading How to Win Friends and Influence People. I was greeted by a little boy standing up with his hands in the air and a 1000-watt grin on his face when I walked into his room on Monday morning. Ok, Mom, it's time to smile!
• I practiced this smile thing on myself a lot this week.  When I woke up, I smiled right away.  When Tyler was in the full swing of naughtiness by 9 AM, I smiled.  For the record, this smiling had no magical power over Tyler's behavior.  He remained just as naughty.  I, however, did feel a little better.
• Alan, my husband, was the true example of Principle #5 this week.  As I laid sick in bed for two days, Alan singlehandedly took care of a little boy whose new favorite hobby is to unroll toilet paper rolls from one end of the house to the other.  And Alan kept up on shoveling nearly a foot of snow to boot!  But that's not all... he did it all with a smile on his face.  Truly.  Thanks for the inspiration, Alan!

Phyllis Diller once said, "A smile is a curve that sets everything straight."  This week proves that smiling does not set everything straight.  The stomach bugs and terrible twos remained.  But smiling did make life - even at its not-so-finest - seem a little more bearable.  So try it for yourself this week and just smile.



Snowy smiles: Alan, Tyler, and the giant snowman!