I assume my past experience as a K-5er is working in my favor on this one.
"A zebra that's been mauled by a LION! Hahaha! April Fools!"
Maybe it's the fact that I spent ALL of April Fools Day with a nine and ten year old, or that I've spent every day of the last four cold, cloudy, wet months couped up in the house with said nine and ten year old, but the jokes are actually starting to get funny! Even though they're the same Laffy Taffy wrapper jokes you and I told as little kids.
By 8:30am on April 1st, I was ready to officially declare it April 2nd. I had been told that the new Harry Potter movie was releasing early.... April Fools! That someone clogged the toilet..... April Fools! That Mary Pope Osborne was doing a spin off of the Magic Tree House books..... April Fools! And the list goes on and on and on. I kept repeating over and over in my head, "Be a good parent. Laugh and say, 'You got me!'" But it was really starting to annoy the ever lovin' crap out of me.
Then I noticed something. As I banged around in the kitchen trying to get breakfast ready and forcing myself to laugh at jokes that, honestly, I wasn't even listening to, the kids were getting even more giggly. So giggly in fact, that they could hardly tell their jokes or play their "pranks" without busting up laughing before they even reached the punch line. Then Bonnie, my two year old, got in on the action. She had no idea why they were laughing but she was cracking up right along with them. So now they're all laughing at each other, which inevitably leads to making funny faces and the hiccups. My hope that I could get them to sit down and do their math went straight out the window, but I didn't really care, because now I was laughing right along with them. And not fake laughing, but real laughing.
So maybe that's it..... maybe THAT'S the secret to finding joy in an already happy life. Just fake it until you find it. Smiles are contagious, right? So just maybe if you fake a smile, a real smile will come back around to you : )
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