Open your face!

One of my little girls has the habit of frowning, she is very emotional and can turn on the tears just.like.that. We've talked about habits and we're working with her to overcome this. I want her to know I'm on her side and one of our key phrases with her is "Open your face!" meaning, stop scrunching it, lift those lips up into a smile! and no more whining! That little phrase usually keeps her from melting down into a puddle of tears over a broken cookie, lost toy, or misplaced shoe.

Yesterday, I had to keep telling myself to open my face.

I don't know what it was exactly but I just found myself feeling so ruffled. Two long weeks, little sleep at night, teething toddler...I wasn't sad, I wasn't grumpy, I wasn't mad...I was a mixture of all three and tried to hide it all morning.

Ah! But then Brian took me to a local greenhouse/plant store. It's not in town, so we drove a about 20 minutes on a long stretch of highway and pulled into a small, manicured jungle.

So glad I grabbed my camera.

All those plants made the air easier to breathe, the birds were everywhere and singing, bright colors surrounded us and I felt so much better.

We went back home with a few trees and bushes in the back of our car, and I for one, had an open face. :)