Choose to laugh. Choose to live.

Have you ever wondered where the day, week, month or year went? I feel like 2017 flew by so fast which to me means that I haven't really been living my life as much as I should. I don't mean I need to add more guilt to my mind or add more things to my to do list, I simply mean that for too long I have been investing a lot of time in things that don't really matter or waste too much time that I cannot get back. Do you know what I mean?

Most days I am losing a lot of the day at work or on my computer for work doing mind numbing work. When I'm not working I find myself caught up in mindlessly scrolling through social media, running all around the house trying to get laundry done, putting the never ending mess of things away for the 100th time that week, clean the next mess up my 2 year old wild child has made and constantly just taking care of things that need to be done.

When our lives are going non-stop or we are vegged out in front of the TV, computer or phone doing nothing productive or fun how much living are we missing out on?

I know I have been missing out on the love, smiles, laughter and fun with my kids that I need and they need. I have been getting so caught up in everything my littlest son is doing wrong that I forget sometimes that he needs me to play with him or just have fun with him to get him focused on something other than running free and looking for my attention. I have been missing out on dancing around the house with the kids or just by myself and enjoying life.

NO MORE.

Enough is enough. We only have a short time here on Earth, so why do I want to miss out on that time for more chores, more cleaning up, more running around or waste it on frustration and not being present in life? I will not clean, do dishes, organize or clean up for a long time every night. I will not just eat the ready made junk for dinner because it is sitting there. I will get back to enjoying cooking like I used to and involve my kids in cooking. Of course we have to do some of these things so we don't live in a disaster zone, but it doesn't need to be done for hours everyday.

Today taking barriers down and just enjoying life started with trying out a color of lip powder that I would not normally try thinking I would look ridiculous. It turns out I loved it, it made me smile and it made me laugh!

Several times in the last few days I turned on my Forest app to keep my attention away from my phone, distractions from anything I was trying to get done and help me re-learn to focus on one thing at a time. That can be so hard when we are so used to constant distractions, changing from one thing to another and multi-tasking frequently. It really helped me break that addiction to looking at my phone that I didn't even realize I had.

When I got home from work and picking my kids up tonight I turned on some fun music, made dinner and danced with Karson. Kayden didn't want anything to do with it, but he did laugh at us a little bit. Karson's eyes lit up, he smiled, laughed and he held on to me tight hugging me and enjoying the time with me being care-free and living my life instead of missing it. Later we went downstairs so they could go in the bounce house and they ended up cuddling with me, taking silly pictures and laughing the whole time. We needed all of those smiles and laughter tonight at our house in between the frustrations and trying to get some things done that HAD to be done - like cleaning the bathrooms that desperately needed it.

I hope this makes you think a bit about how you're living your life. Is everything about computers, phones, mind numbing activities, check lists, looking or being a perfectionist? Are you really living and laughing, bonding, connecting and playing with others? We are never too old to play and have fun so get out there and do something fun today, laugh, smile and just enjoy life. Let me know in the comments something that you did or will be doing to liven up your life!