what makes you smile?

A blog I read faithfully (actually, I read every blog I follow faithfully - which may be why I'm getting less and less sleep) is Mommy of a Monster.  Yesterday she linked up to Mama Kat's Writers' Workshop with a list of ten things that put a smile on her face when she's not happy.  Her list was good for my soul . . . like cold water on a hot day.  As you know if you read Tuesday's True Confession, I've been taken over by sadness this week . . . not a lot of smiling going on in the lip region of my face, so this exercise is just what I need to remind myself how to smile.  

Ten things that have made me smile this week even though I'm not happy:

1)  My youngest daughter still sleeps in her crib - mostly because if she didn't I would worry for her safety.  She has no fear.  We learned while on vacation that she will get out of bed and wander around doing who knows what in the middle of the night when everyone else is sleeping, so she has earned herself a ticket to sleeping in a crib until she's sixteen . . . maybe thirteen is she's lucky.  Anyway, I can't help but smile every single morning when I walk in her room, and she quickly covers her head (not her feet or the rest of her body - just her head) with her blanket and screams, "I'm hiding Mama!  Come find me!"  I honestly think that she thinks she is hiding and I don't know where she is.  And did I mention she does this EVERY MORNING?  Hilarious! 

2)  Sewing the head upside down onto the body of my most recent project.  Now come on . . . that's funny stuff.    

3) This picture of two beauties and a great dad who loves to play dress up because his daughters love to play dress up.     

4)  Creating, dreaming, thinking deeply . . .

5)  Seeing the pride on my oldest daughter's face when she learned to use the brakes on her bike.

6)  A bright green tree on the background of a vibrant blue sky.

7)  An e-mail from a friend who just gets me.

8)  An old song that's new to me . . . The Valley Song.

9)  My daughter saying, "I love you mommy - the whole wide world!"

10) The belief that someday everything that is wrong with this world will be made right again . . . someday soon, I hope.