Thanks for the great advice Liz!

Liz was definitely onto something when she made that statement. A good slick of lipstick always brightens my mood. A little drink on top of that when life begins to unravel? Well, that would just be the icing on the cake. If only it were that simple, right?

All kidding aside, some days, we take every day life WAY too seriously. We make mountains out of molehills and drama takes center stage in our lives. We react instead of act. We freak out instead of letting it go. When we behave like drama kings and queens we lose sight of the things that should really matter in our lives. When we continually focus on the negative, we stop being thankful.  What if we decided to stop making mountains and climb one instead?

Last week, when my car had a major breakdown, I made a choice to NOT freak out and I must say, I’m pretty proud of myself for making that choice.

My youngest kids were driving to Iowa and were 2 1/2 hours away from home when the car died. It happened on a Monday, one of the busiest days of the week for me. Maybe it’s age, maybe it’s personal growth, or maybe it’s something entirely different, but, I didn’t freak out. No drama here. Flipping out would have gotten me nowhere. A few years ago, I probably would have had a little meltdown or more likely a  major one. Instead, all I could think of was how thankful I was.

I was thankful that my kids were safe, thankful that I have a coworker that is awesome and goes with the flow, thankful I have a job with flexibility, thankful we had access to a trailer to retrieve my car, thankful my oldest is so incredibly smart and mechanically inclined, thankful that I got to spend unexpected time with my kids, thankful my parents live close and are so gracious with their extra vehicles, thankful we are able to get the car fixed... even though it was a major bummer,  I kept it together. No lipstick (or drink) required!

Everyday we have the opportunity to choose whether we react, freak out, focus on the negative, and let drama take over. Or, we can choose to stay in control, act responsibly, and focus on the positive. We can choose to be thankful for what do have and to be thankful for what is going right in our lives. Things work out so much better when we don’t make that molehill into a mountain.

Unfortunately though, life can be incredibly tough sometimes. We all have have our bad days. And you know what? That’s okay. We are all entitled to an occasional tantrum- OCCASIONAL being the key word here.

Imagine for a moment if we all chose to follow old Liz’s advice and just simply pulled ourselves together every time we faced adversity in our lives. What a crazy, happy, colorful, intoxicated world it would be! Thanks Liz for your words of wisdom. If it were only that simple, right?

P.S. Here’s my disclaimer! I personally do not advocate for ‘taking a drink’ when times get bad, especially if you are a person with an alcohol addiction. However, this quote by Elizabeth Taylor was too good to pass up. 

Plus, if truth be told, I can totally envision myself cracking a cold one, putting on the lip gloss (and big sunglasses of course) and literally “pulling myself together.”

Some days all a girl needs is good gloss and big sunglasses to get through a tough day. A drink would just be icing on the cake!