I love to laugh. I love to surround my self with people that make me laugh, and will laugh with me.
I believe that one of the reasons why our marriage works is because Quinn and I know how to laugh, with each other, at each other, and especially at our kids (not to their faces, of course).
Over the years, I've learned to laugh at our chaos. I've begun to find the laws of nature funny, you know the ones... Someone will always spill something sticky on a freshly mopped floor, there's a really good chance that someone will wake up crying just as I drift off to sleep, the kids can sense when I'm on the phone and think that this somehow means I want them to come and scream at me or near me.... I could go on and on! The most consistent law of nature in our house is that one or all of the kids will get sick when Quinn leaves (and the cure is always Quinn walking back through the door).
A few months ago Quinn was somewhere other than here and all four kids were sick. To make it even more fun, so was I. We all had high fevers and headaches. It was a fun party! It was one of those weekends where we survived on Redbox movies and fast food (for those that felt well enough to eat). On Saturday evening, I was giving Alex and Emma a bath (just in case we were miraculously feeling well enough to go to church the next morning), Isaac came in the bathroom and asked if he could heat up some french fries. I told him to put them on a plate and microwave them for ten seconds. As I sat on the stool by the bathtub while Alex and Emma play, with my head in my hands chanting "I think I can, I think can", Isaac comes in with a terrified look on his face. As I look up at him, I smell something burning. He says "I think ten minutes was too long for the french fries". I stand up, head still in my hands because it might just explode if I let go, fight off the urge to vomit and follow Isaac out of the bathroom. As I walk out, I see the house is starting to fill with smoke, I run to the kitchen (still fighting the urge to vomit) and find a charred pile of French fries still smoldering in the microwave. Poor Isaac still looks terrified so I take them out of the microwave, hand the plate to him and ask "would you like ketchup on your fries?". We both start laughing (making my head throb even more). We started opening windows and then I hear a thud and Emma screams -crap! The kids are still in the tub (mom of the year right here). As I run back to the bathroom thinking how I will explain this to Child Protection Services, Emma and Alex start giggling (Thank you, Lord). Everyone was fine, the house didn't burn down, the children didn't drown in the tub, I would not have to have that awkward conversation with CPS trying to explain why I left two toddlers in the tub because my 8 year old almost burnt down the house, my head didn't explode nor did I vomit. Yay! I lined the kids up, gave them all a good dose of ibuprofen, put them in bed then collapsed in my own bed and called the one person who would find this recent chain of events as funny as I did... Quinn. We both laughed, because really what else can you do when so many ridiculous things happen at the exact same moment?
In a split second I had a choice to make, I could get mad and yell at Isaac for not listening to my instructions, I could panic and freak out at the sight of the burning fries and smoked filled house, or I could find humor in a crazy situation. I chose humor. Let's be real, this is the stuff sitcoms are made of!
I laugh because it relieves my tension, it's therapeutic and I hope that it teaches my children not to take everything in life so seriously. If we can learn to laugh at our silly mistakes and at the uncontrollable laws of nature, we might all be just a little happier! Because laughter really is the best medicine!
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