Throughout life, there are always things that make you smile. Hopefully, you smile often. Every day life gets busy, but it’s the little things throughout the day that often bring us joy. Someone wise told me that we should put things in our home that bring us joy. When we see those items, they make us smile. I have some colored glass and sun catchers hanging in windows; I love little succulents; we have family and friend photos (and Christmas cards) as well as artwork on the wall reminding us of where we’ve been; we have rocking chairs that my dad made for us on our back porch, and so many other little things that make our home “home“. These little things are always there, but when I take the time to remember to look, they make me smile.

Living in Uganda can be hard sometimes. Some days are difficult, some relationships are frustrating, some conversations are draining. Not much different than anywhere else in the world, but we live at a higher stress level because we are always processing the very different culture around us. So when we come across things in town or while we’re traveling that make us smile, we take a mental note or a photo to help us laugh or smile during those difficult days. Obviously, we have so many great days with ministry and we love the people here, as well as our life. But I want to share with you some of the funny things we see that make us smile and keep us laughing. I posted a while back about the funny things we see on motorcycles. I have so many more photos, but here’s that blog post for your reading pleasure.

I hope you find things in your daily life that make you smile and bring you joy when life gets hard. Today, I am very thankful for the little things that make me smile.