Sunday, February 19

Again, many good things happened today, so it will be hard to chose my favorite.  Church was great, shopping with L was successful both in what we purchased and how little we paid, we again had a family hot tub soak under the stars, and we watched the movie Fireproof, which we all enjoyed.  All good, happy moments.  Oh, and T and I finally made it to the gym to exercise!  So which to choose?

Well, I'll pick a funny moment.  I have always had trouble on the spot coming up with the right name for a loved one.  I have on occasion gone through all four names before I hit on the right one for the kid I was addressing.  So tonight I was asking L to do something and I accidentally called her "Pup," one of my terms of endearment for Oliver.   =)  The shock and annoyance that registered on her face tickled me, especially given that Oliver does not rank high in L's book of favorite creatures.  But he ranks high in mine!  So she should be honored to be called by the dog's name, don't you think?

And an endearing moment.  We were sitting in the hot tub and L was speaking a little unfavorably about someone we know who has taken up something ~good~ and decided he's pretty hot stuff for doing it.  And beyond that, he's decided he'd better give us full advantage of his good example by telling us all about it fairly often.  It's both amusing and irritating, depending on your state of mind.  So L was irritated, that being her state of mind at the moment.  And R, unwittingly, and thereby more effectively, gave us full advantage of his good example by being neither amused nor irritated, but compassionate toward this person. He said, "He's just proud [of himself and excited about his new venture]."  (I just used 11 words to quote R when he really only used 3, reticent guy that he is.  But I wanted you to understand the sense in which R meant the word "proud.")  Didn't I tell you he was a special kid?

Sunday, February 12

So, in spite of my quasi-bashing of the Happiness Project book a post of two ago, I'm becoming a disciple.  My sister has an idea she's implementing from her journey through the Happiness Project that I think is just a stroke of genius! Every night before she hops into bed she is taking the time to think through what the happiest moment of the day was, and writing it down.  Just a line or two.  But what a fantastic discipline!  First of all, it forces us to remember that, no matter how heavy our burdens seemed that day, there was a happy moment.  It forces us to dwell on it, even if just for a minute or two, and be thankful.  Additionally, it will allow us to see a pattern in what makes us happy, and that pattern, I'm guessing, may surprise us in the end!

So what was my happy moment for today?  It had to be the 30 minutes in the hot tub with the family (T and the younger two kids, R and L).  It was cold enough that the boards of the deck creaked as we walked on them, the sky was clear and full of stars, and we were all relaxed, talking about nothing, just being together.  Oliver was alternately playing in the snow or under the deck, and then coming up to nuzzle someone's neck or lick an arm.  We discussed which hot tub light color we liked best and why, deciding ultimately that red and blue were the favorites.  R ran out into the snow for a bit just for the thrill of coming back into the warm tub.  We discussed that although the challenge of making a snow angel in a wet bathing suit might sound fun, it would not be advisable with all the poop accumulating in the yard right now!  And we saw who could lift their straight legs furthest out of the water while seated.  That was probably the most important issue at hand.  It was a happy moment!