A Year of Smiles – Day 300

Reason to SMILE #300: HALLOWEEN COSTUMES

“Mom, I know what I want to be for the Fall Festival,” declared my younger son.

It was Friday evening. The Fall Festival was Sunday evening. There was not enough time to order a costume on line and no local stores had the costume he wanted. The only remaining option was to make the costume but my Saturday was already obligated to preparing for the Fall Festival on Sunday.

My response to my son’s declaration was,” I’m thinking you need to be Alex. No prep required!” 😉

He was not nearly as pleased as I was with myself.

Well, as I was frantically running around on Saturday finishing the last little things for the church Fall Festival, I began to feel guilty. How could I not try to make this costume for my kid? What kind of mom am I anyway? So, when I returned home at 6:30 Saturday evening, I got to work.

We already had the main element of the costume – a cheap painter’s jumpsuit that we used for a prior year’s costume. It simply needed to be painted and embellished. Lucky for me, I had an unfinished bathroom that could be used as a paint studio!

While I was out earlier in the day, I purchased the paint then I scrounged around the house for the embellishments.

(I call this “Death of a Christmas bow”!)

It truly wasn’t a difficult task but it was time consuming. I spent hours painting, waiting for the paint to dry, finding ribbon and trying to keep my son’s attention long enough to tell me if I was decorating the costume correctly. Finally, at 11 o’clock, I was finished!

Whew! I was tired! It was a long Saturday but the happiness on my kid’s face was payment enough for all my efforts and hard work. You may not see his SMILE but it was there. And his SMILE made me SMILE! That’s what really matters.

By the way, for those of you wanting step-by-step instructions on how to recreate this AMAZING (Haha!) costume, here they are:

1. Ask your child to decide what he or she wants to be for Halloween/Fall Festival at least 2 weeks prior to the event. (Don’t wait for him to decide!)
2. Order the costume on Amazon.

Boom! Done! And everybody will be SMILING! 😉

 

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A Year of Smiles – Day 182

Reason to SMILE #182: A GOOD START

“Well begun is half done.” – Aristotle (also Mary Poppins 😉)

You can never complete a job unless you first begin it. I keep telling myself this about my household projects list – new flooring, new doors, painting. So many other things tend to get in the way but today, I began. I didn’t get much accomplished – some cleaning in preparation for painting – but it was a start.

The plans have been laid out. I’m looking forward to the SMILES that will come when the projects are complete. Until then, I’ll SMILE with each step I take, no matter how small, in getting the job done.

What job or project have you been putting off? Take that first step toward completing it. It’s amazing the joy that comes from simply beginning.

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney

A Year of Smiles – Day 168

Reason to SMILE #168: KISSES

I’ve tried my best to avoid this mushy stuff but I can hold out no longer.

I was sitting in bed with one earbud in while listening to a song I was learning for church in the morning (Yes, I waited ’til the last minute. I’m a busy lady!).  The music was soft and soothing featuring a beautifully played soprano saxophone (think of Kenny G playing church music).  My husband had been in the room a while.  He, of course, could hear me singing but could not hear the music.  Out of nowhere, he just leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.  (And the crowd said, “Awww!”)  As far as I’m concerned, he couldn’t have timed that kiss any better.  It made me SMILE!  Let’s hear that “Awww” one more time.

Okay.  Enough of the mushy stuff!  But take note.  If you wanna make that someone special SMILE, try a sweet little kiss on the cheek.

What are you waiting for?  Go try it!

 

 

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