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well, Thio family podcast where we believe you all fallible and what

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you do matters. My name

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is Shauna. Would I'm Justin would I don't know. What episode this episode 37 37 We just finished dinner and I am very tired, but we're gonna do an episode. So today we're talking about Laughter is good medicine It is. And it's April Fool's Day. It is April Fool's Day like that was very appropriate. Well, in our oldest son, Christmas and then April fools Oh my goodness, Yeah, His favorite day of the year is April fools. And some years it has been rough on the rest of us, so but last night and I just think I'm hilarious. You should just know that about me. I think I'm funny. So we have the kids. Portrait's hanging up on a wall in our living room. Six kids, six individual individual portrait. It's And so when I first hang the hung those on the wall a couple of years ago, the kids started making all these jokes, and at first they're like, Oh, the 1st 1 That's the one that Mom loves the. And then they started getting way. Would rotate him. We rotate on sometimes would be like you lost, you're walking and somebody would have, like, mixed him up. Yeah, And then somebody was in the very first, and they started like they were just being so full of themselves that day. So all of a sudden, Justin says, actually, that's our cell list. If things get tough, whoever's in the front, we're going to sell you first, right? Right. So it's kind of a running joke running joke, and it's all in good. You know, Everybody laughs about it. Everybody gets it. They need therapy about it. Oh, sure, but right on the list of things they can talk to their therapist about is an adult. Right? Um, so last night, I'm generally the last person up, so I'd take down our oldest two kids pictures, and I covered them up with I pull out like pictures of wild animals and cover up their photograph, put the glass back in all of that and hang them up on the wall. So now, like they're not even on the wall in your So I woke up. It was like before five. Uh, Anyway, I was walking around the living room. And I'm like, Oh, we have to animals now. Um, So anyway, I thought it was really funny. I thought it would be a fun way for everybody just to start April Fool's Day way we're so proud of You said it was over. Adam myself. Everybody right now is like we're under a collective stress bubble. So I was thinking about that. I was like, Well, stress is normal. We all go through stress. But I think what makes this such an odd time is that collectively, like all of the adults and a lot of the Children are all stressed at the same time. Right for sure. We never had probably anything like this before. My generation has never know for sure or younger. Right? Right. Right. Like that. True. Yeah. So I'm always on the lookout of ways to make our family laugh. And this what I was also So I told the stolen all Facebook because a couple friends had posted different things about it. So, um and my oldest one was in on this and it wasn't an April fool. Just tell the story. You tell a story. Just tell us the way went to the into the bathroom and 22 rolls of toilet paper and set them down on the top of the clothesline. Okay, before you keep going in our home with six kids, you do this. Things get broken, like every day. There's something that breaks every day. There's something that gets something done every day, right? So my to do list is always, like, 20 miles, long of like, whatever door handles break or something simple or just I mean, like, we need a full times make maintenance, man, because people are just hard on things. Right. Okay, so there you go. So that's the preface to the story. So we went down close the lid, but to toilet paper rolls to sit on it. So it looks like like a toilet character from Sesame Street with these big guys. They're looking at you and stuck a little empty cardboard roll from the toilet paper out underneath the lid. So I look like our little toilet creature was smoking, right? Smoking like a cigarette. So then I come upstairs strategically while he's on the phone. I'm on the phone talking of halfway serious conversation, and I'm like, honey, the toilet smoking. And then I have to turn really fast because I can't, like, keep it all looks And I'm trying to have a conversation at once, which never goes. Well, you finish your funny story. Go ahead. Wait. So he hangs up, He's like, I got to go and he goes down and he's like, we're all gonna blow up of the Doyle and smoking there something bad. And then it gets down there and he sees that it looks like this little toilet creature smoking a cigarette. It was hilarious all day long. About that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So with laughter being good medicine, so sweet. See so many quotes about this. There's even a Scripture verse. Proverbs 17 22 said that Mary Hart does good like medicine, So but what I didn't realize is how many studies have actually been done that connect stress and decrease of stress with laughter. So I just want to share this with you all. So I will say this. I don't know what you're gonna say, but be careful with pranks because pranks can not be fun. You don't mean like with their oldest, like we've had to say, Okay, this is too far, and he has a pretty good understanding. This is funny, but this is not so funny. Right? So anyway, go ahead. Yeah, but don't Don't go overboard pranks right now, right? People can't handle really stressful thing. You might get shot. Yeah, and we reeled him in. And this year, actually, his only prank was for our oldest likes to sleep in. So he was on Lee woke up when there was one other child still sleeping this morning, and he took a dry erase marker and, like, did 1/2 a mirrored on the side of his face and get to but washing off real easy. So anyway, Okay, so according to the Mayo Clinic, laughter enhances your intake of oxygen. Rich air stimulates your heart, your lungs, your muscles and increases endorphins. That air released by your brain. It can also stimulate circulation and aid muscle relaxing. Relax, ation. So that's just short term. Like you heard how hilarious. I wasn't thinking you shorter, But if you start to incorporate laughter and just fun just being intentional about fun in your life, the study actually showed that there were long term benefits too. So they went on to say that laughter long term improves your immune system. Quite fitting in today's pandemic relieves pain, increases personal satisfaction lessons, depression and decreases anxiety. There we go. So I feel like we're, like writing a script and passing it out. Everybody on Facebook that you need to laugh. Yes. Yes, for sure A ends. We're gonna give you some suggestions, E. I don't know what you're about to say. Go ahead. So besides, you know, April fools, it is kind of fun. Todo little things. So, for example, little things that were approved that our oldest son has done on April Fool's one year he bought a whole package of Oreos with his allowance money that he saved and white toothpaste scraped all the icing out of the Oreo. Put toothpaste on it, smash the cookies back together and serve them. That was pretty cool. It was funny. I was also a little bit concerned. Several of our Children like, Oh, this isn't bad. Yeah, yeah, I ate the whole thing. Yeah, like you got more. Yeah. Kids bless their hearts. And then And then one year, he took a box and put it into a cake pan. Yeah. Like what? Yeah, yeah. So, a baking pan, That was pretty cool. And any iced I got decorated it and presented it to his cousin was about his age. And I was so ready to eat the whole cake. This is Fant tries to, like started cutting through it. It was pretty good. Those air good doesn't really goods were good, but this is the icing on the cake because Butembo Grandma Yeah. Graham on June, who is in her eighties? Yeah, I don't know exactly what you had this happened, but whatever. Here, he pulled the cake, the cardboard cake thing. Grandma was watching the whole thing, and she's a little mischievous way she watched and she saw, you know, he fooled everybody and all that kind of thing. And then as he sat down to eat, she leans over, It goes, savior fly. I just laid in that food. Yeah, there's a bug. There's a bug in your food. So he was taken back there, Grandma Laughter. So, yeah, what we're saying is try to incorporate as much laughter as you can, don't pick fights. And I think that's what you're gonna go ahead and say about We've started watching Andy Griffith. I'm skimming your notes because I don't know what she's gonna talk about. Um, but we start watching Andy Griffith because they don't really make fun of each other. You know what I mean? Like, it's really character. Yeah, it's not put down. It's like character. Ah, character. Ah, humor, you know, coming. Yeah, so it's just, you know, Don Knots is unbelievable what he does. So I started watching some old movies. Yeah, that have, you know, some characters and old Disney movies got Disney. Plus, it's a good time to watch the old throat so that kind of thing and also stand up comedians. We've watched some of that, even just like clips on YouTube. Oh, you know, jibe. Our drive, our comedy. We love that one. It's clean kids because that's the problem with comedians is like, You know, uh, I don't I don't know when they're going to switch gears or whatever to something adults. So it's like but dry your it's dry, dry bar comedy. It's on YouTube. I had Fred, Clete, we gotta go watch that. I'm gonna stay up now. One of 11. Yeah, has just posted, like yesterday, today, his whole his whole routine. Yeah. Yeah. So some other ways, besides just just stop broadcasting. Go watch that. I forgot about it that you could just add some fun. Add some Mary. I started thinking about that verse from Proverbs. A merry heart does good. Well, that makes me think of Christmas. Merry what? Everybody's jolly and happy and we're saying Merry Christmas anyway, So I don't know if you guys see, this is what happens when I don't help collaborate on the notes. It just goes wherever ruin. Merry Christmas here, um, people. But now Christmas lights in their yards. Right now, I think it started in Europe, but there's America has taken it on course. I redneck neighbors never took the lights down. So you know, it's okay flipping the electricity back on. All right, go ahead. Today I did have to go into town to pick something up, and when I came back, So we live way out in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Um, and so but there's a lot of truckers and the drive on some of those back country roads. And so there was a sign that obviously someone handmade and their kid colored it, but it said Keep rolling. Truckers. We love you, you know? And the kids had colored it and it was out in the yard. So it's just something fun and uplifting. Like I'm not a trucker. I'm not married to a trucker, you know? But still, I saw it and I smiled. It was just, you know, fun. Okay? I don't know where you're going. Go ahead, Theo. Everything. I'm done. Let's go watch a Fred clean thing. Okay? So if you are doing something fun, that is increasing laughter in your life That is increasing the Mary in your household. We would love to hear about it. You can just drop us a comment on this Facebook post. You can connect with us lots of different ways right now, actually, on our instagram accounts, I'm Shawna Cherie Wood. I'm ready to go do this in Wrightwood. He's toast is done. You

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can connect with this. We have a Facebook page, actually. For the less dress family podcast. You can connect with this there and you could connect with us on our website. L s f podcast dot com. Most of all We just want you guys to know that you are valuable and what you do matters. So I hope you working. So laughter and fun is what you do next. Make it routine. Absolutely. All right. We're gonna go watch that comedian. I have a good night. Thank you.