The best home remedy...

For the past 2weeks, maybe even 3, my family and I have been trying to regain control over being immersed in the sickness that has somehow taken over as the norm. in our house. My kids each got strep throat and then I went to the E.R. to find out that I had bronchitis and Pneumonia at the same time. We have had to rely on extended family members and friends to help get us through this rough patch. It was not easy.

We have all had our antibiotics and I was even given an inhaler "just in case" I had trouble breathing. We needed a remedy that would not be temporary and would have us back to ourselves as a family again. My dad has been telling us all about the remedies that have helped him in his own blog about his battle with Cancer.

Well I figured out what the Best Home Remedy has been for us. It is so simple and so well known but always forgotten. It is such a cliche' yet at the same time such truth. What is the best medicine known to man? Laughter.

My daughter and even my boys love to find ways to make us laugh. Just tonight my daughter was asking me "Mommy, why do we have ears? Why do we have Mouthes? Why do we have heads? Why do we have hair?" But the one that made me laugh was when she asked... "Mommy, why do we have noses?" I answered her by telling her it is so that we can smell. To which she promptly answered "And so that we can snore, too." Yes dear it is very important to be able to snore.
Josiah makes us laugh in a very different way. His humor is dry and witty. He says very random things that make you shake your head and ask "WHAT?" while not being able to hold in the laughter at the same time. One day while riding in the car with his siblings and dad he shouts out... "I'm cold! I just peed, I'm warm now!" He of course had not peed, but knew that saying it would get a laugh and could not help himself.
Karston my oldest is starting to get to the age when he must show more maturity than the others so his humor is somewhat rare and different. Just today he was sitting by his dad on the couch, reading the paper. He nonchalantly said "Dad, my teacher yelled at me for something I did not do, you know what it was?" Of course dad says "No, what?" He answered, "My homework." And then as if he had just been really sneaky about being funny, he started to snicker under his breath and that turned into a giggle. Hearing him laugh at his own joke is what of course makes Heath and I laugh in return.
Heath and I also find ways to laugh together. For example we watched a movie tonight that I can not recommend and probably will not watch again, but I loved it for how ridiculously funny and absurd it all was. Each new character made this movie even more lovable while the plot itself was at it's best questionable. When the movie was over we went to bed grinning and stayed up sharing intimate laughter together.

My sense of humor and what I find funny, may not be the same as most people, but when a person can laugh it makes all the difference in any situation. I have learned over the years to shrug off all preconceived notions of what may or may not seem "right" in the eyes of others, but to find the freedom in the laughter all around us.

When my daughter asked me this week "Did Jesus have gas?" I posed the question for all of facebook to weigh in on. Most people said that he did because of his humanity and the fact that we are made in HIS image, so if we have gas, he has gas. In the same way, I believe Jesus has a great sense of humor. He loves laughter and allows us to indulge in it everyday.

So in the words of the Laughing Cow Cheese: "Have you laughed today?"