I wrote recently about finding joy in the mess.
If you read that post, I am sure the claim will make some sense because, outside of the explanation, the idea that there could be joy found in mess sounds somewhat ridiculous.
Joy in mess?
PREPOSTEROUS.
Wait. We actually found A LOT of joy in THIS muddy mess!
That was about 4 years ago – our family mud fight. My how time flies, friends.
*This post is sponsored by Clorox. They have asked me to share about MY emotion on messes and the joy that can be found in the midst of dealing with said messes. All thoughts and strategies around how I emotionally deal with messes are my own.
This weekend the girls and I got to see Inside Out. The boys were at football camp for four days, so we got in a lot of “girl time”.
The previews of Inside Out intrigued me… My girls are 10 and 13. Riley is 11… if there is a developmental and emotional season of life I can relate to as a parent right now – it’s the tween/teen age.
All three of us loved the movie. We were all moved in different ways… and thinking of how the movie portrayed emotions like joy and anger and disgust and sadness and fear… we ALL related. To the emotions. To the characters.
It was a good reminder for all three of us girls to see how our emotions affect others. AND? It was good to see how our emotions affect our own selves as well.
Hey… if you were one of the Inside Out characters, which one would you be? THERE’S A QUIZ FOR THAT- click here!
I got Joy. With a 16, 13, and 10 year old, I expected to get Fear.
Watching emotions from that perspective was a great refocus for me, personally. It was a good point-of-pause and reflection as I am deeeeeeeeeeeeep in the trenches of such tween and teen emotion.
DEEP.
It is SO messy.
Speaking of messes.
Clorox sent me a bit of a survival kit.
If I can’t control the emotional mess that sometimes gets swirling around the house – I can have control somewhere… over the dust, or the stains, or spills.
Finding joy in the mess? In my previous post I talked a lot about how attitude plays a big part of that. However, having the right tools also help in the joy-in-the-mess process as well. There’s nothing like having what you need, when you need it. So a well-stocked cleaning closet (or cabinet or shelf or bucket or…) is really helpful.
You know what else is really helpful? GETTING AWAY FROM THE MESS. Clorox and Disney•Pixar are joining forces to give away a fun family trip to explore San Francisco inside out! Follow this link to find out how to enter! One family will win the trip, and 25 other winner will receive Clorox and Inside Out prize packs.
Have you seen Inside Out yet?
If not, I think you should. A movie about emotions should probably evoke emotions… and it delivers. I cried. I LOLd. My girls did too. And it opened up some conversation about emotions and how we communicate with each other… AND how our emotions influence our communication with each other.
