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overlook the things that don't really matter. If a few crumbs fall on the floor, simply clean them up.
Learn to enjoy the excitement in a child's voice as she tells you about her day's activities. Get in on the fun. Play tag and hide-and-seek. Allow your kids to see with your hair down. Let them know you're real and you like to have fun, too. Compliment them. Nothing makes us feel more relaxed and loved than when someone says, "Great job! I'm really proud of you."
Laugh a lot. Research shown us that children laugh an average of 400 times in one day while adults are doing well to give a hearty chuckle 15 times a day. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, things no longer seem funny. As adults, we too often lose the art of relaxing and enjoying the little things that mean so much. Proverbs 17:22 tells us that "a joyful heart is good medicine."
Part of relaxing is learning to laugh at the little things. Kids squeal with delight when they see a kitten playing with a ball of yarn or a bird pecking in the ground for a worm. A 50-cent jar of bubbles can create hours of fun. There's nothing quite like roasting gooey marshmallows on a stick over a fire. As adults, we need to reclaim part of that childlike enthusiasm for living--and laugh together with our kids.
Make holidays fun. Too often, holidays create enormous stress when, in fact, these special occasions should be happy, relaxed times that allow us to forget about the cares of the day.
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