The Whole World Stinks!

Today I have another guest post from my friend Denise.
Denise and I spent part of the day together yesterday, she is one of those special friends that makes a trip to the coffee shop for a vanilla latte on her way to my house! It's hard to find such good friends :)

We had lots of fun talking, laughing...working on blog issues (does anyone know if you can change your primary email on your blogger blog???)...which we never figured out and ended up talking about how excited we are to go to a writer's conference together this summer (insert squeeeeel!)~ and not everyone would be as thrilled (writer nerds unite!)~ so it's wonderful to have Denise in my life, she is a gift.

If you've ever had a bad day, you will enjoy this article!

You can click on the picture to read more at her blog...the story about their trip to the photographer is priceless-one we can probably all relate to!

Have you had one of those days? Where, literally, everything stinks? I did today.

The farmer across the field from us is spreading manure over the fields. I think he has found the nastiest stinkiest ickiest manure he had from sitting there all winter and decided to spread it as far away from his house as he could, so it’s right next to ours. He started doing this yesterday, he finished up today. It’s a big tractor, it’s a HUGE stink.

This morning, we overslept – again. Since this spring time change, I cannot seem to get in the groove of it. My first thought was “oh no!” followed by “what is that smell?”.

This is not the way to start the day.

Our youngest had the flu on Sunday. Today he had the diarrhea. I would walk into the room where he and older brother were playing, get a whiff and say “are you stinky?” His brother would answer “He is VERY stinky.”

I have been changing diapers for nine solid years. I share my home with four boys and my husband and ONE bathroom. So when I tell you he stunk badly, believe me, he did.

It just wasn’t a good day. It was cloudy and dreary and so windy the boys couldn’t really go outside to burn off energy. I spent the day over tired, the boys were at each others throats (when I say that, believe me, they really are. It’s an art form, really, to strangle your brother and be away from him and on the couch before the storming mother enters the room to save the screaming one), my husband’s tractor broke and he couldn’t fix it, the laundry was insurmountable, the awful smell was everywhere and when my husband came in to tell me the fertilizer he had gotten for the asparagus wouldn’t spread I thought, ‘that figures, because this whole day stinks.’

And when I said that, I realized it was my attitude that stunk the most. It was the stinkiest thing I had surrounding me!

So, while my husband ran to town for fertilizer and took one of the four boys with him that needed “alone daddy time” the most, I sat down to do my Bible study. The one I had not done due to the awful day. Since the Beth Moore conference – let me say here that I had NEVER heard of Beth Moore before the Praise and Coffee conference and that it touched me deeply, that weekend – I have been doing the “Loving Well” workbook. Today it was on “Joy”. I nearly laughed out loud when I read the title.

The last part of the day’s worksheet was to think of the people who bring us joy, who are a joy to love, and I got caught up in writing some notes. I had thought to do it later, when I had time, but Curious George was entertaining the crowd and there never really IS time so I took advantage of that and spent the show writing a few “it’s a joy to love you” cards. I kid you not, the sunshine came out as I worked. I felt smiled upon.