Day 4 - Happy Painting

Day 4 of 31 Days of Happy - Happy Painting.


Painting makes me giddy.   It's not that I love doing it.  And it's definitely not that I'm even remotely good at it...because I'm messy as all get out.  BUT...I love that it's quick and changes things so drastically.  


For someone with my attention span, that's perfection.


The past couple of days I've been working on painting the doors to the new part of the house, and also decided I'd give the church doors an updated color.  So now the parsonage and the church totally match.  Oh, and I painted the side door to the garage too, so it also matches...I mean who wants their garage looking all left out?!?

The weather here in Iowa is gorgeous this week.  Look at the reflection of the changing leaves in the window.  Perfection.

The space on the 2nd floor, where there's no window is where our ginormous closet will be!  So yeah, it looks a little unbalanced from the outside...but it's a necessary sacrifice. ;)

Church doors.  They were robins egg blue before.  Very 1999...literally.  I said to Ben, we'll find out who loved the blue doors and who didn't by their reaction on Sunday.

• What happened to the blue doors?!?  = loved the blue
• Wow the gray doors look great!  = me ;)

Eventually, the older part of the house will get new windows and siding...just in case you were wondering.  I'd hate for you to lose sleep.

It seems that the more I paint, the more objects I find that need to be painted.  This little cradle was mine when I was a wee one.  I'm sure the wood stain was all the rage in 1977.  Who knew I'd grow up to be one of those weird people who actually likes everything to be painted...including wooden objects .

 Ta Da!  I'm gonna sand it a little and add some stain to it so it looks a little "old."   Oh Happy Day!


You know what else makes me happy?  Our make-shift sidewalk.  It kills me. I literally chuckle about it all the time.  I'm sure there's other ways to make a temporary sidewalk...but could they be any more classy  klassy?  I think not.
  

I'm curious...what makes you happy today?


Oh, and FringeGirl has a great post today on Happy Spending.  Go visit...good stuff.

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Happy Kicked My Butt

Day 3 of 31 Days of Happy.  Not sure what I'm talking about?  You can go here for more info.

hap·pyAdjective/ˈhapē/ (according to Wikipedia)

1. Feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.

2. Having a sense of confidence in or satisfaction with (a person, arrangement, or situation).

Wouldn't it be grand if happy and thankful were the same thing?  All day I've been trying to come up with a post for this blog and I kept coming up with things I'm thankful for...and then I'd stop and think, yeah...I'm thankful for that but am I happy about it?  I'm talking "Happy" from the definition above...not happy as in la la la everything is perfect kinda happy.

Hmmm.  Sort of revealing.  Sort of don't like what I saw in my heart.

It started this morning.  

Children (who wake at the crack-o-dawn) yipping orders at me as I stumble down the stairs barely awake.  Thankful for my kids...less than happy with them.

The house is a mess.  Thankful for a home to clean...not exactly happy with doing it.

Off to Menards to pick out storm doors and look at kitchen cabinets.  Thankful for the new addition...not happy with customer service or myself when it comes to picking out stuff.

Home to cook supper.  Thankful for food to fill our bellies.  Not happy about making it...or cleaning up.  And really not happy with my children's reaction to the food.  

You get the idea.  Should Thankful and Happy coincide?  Not necessarily...not always.  But should they, more often than they do?  I kinda think so.  

I kinda think they should.  If I'm truly thankful, then there should be a sense of satisfaction.  Happiness really is a reflection of satisfaction.  

Today...31 Days of Happy, kicked my butt.  And I'm going to learn to be happy about that.  

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Day 2 of Happy

I'm joining FringeGirl for 31 Days of Happy.  

Day 2:  Happy New Year

I know it sounds weird, but I tend to evaluate years by the school year calendar rather than the traditional January 1st to December 31st deal.  In my head, it looks like this:

School starts (beginning of year)

End of Summer = End of year

Don't judge me, it's how my head works.  

So fall (in my head) is like a new beginning...school starts and it's off to new things.  

Every year we have a fall party on my husbands side of the family.  

Last fall:

This fall:

We do have other kids...it's just that the others are much harder to nail down for pictures...they protest relentlessly.  Even Lucy is beginning to rebel against the camera.  Hooligans.

It's crazy how much changes in a years time.  

And yet, so much stays the same.  

It's what makes life, life.  I'm thankful for the gift of it.  Makes me happy.

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Day One of Happy

I'm going to be joining one of my faaaavorite bloggers, FringeGirl, for the next 31 days.  31 Days of Happy.


I like happy.  It seems like everyone should like happy.  But honestly, I think a lot of people like unhappy better.  Or they've just been in unhappy mode for so long they don't even remember what happy is.

hap·pyAdjective/ˈhapē/ (according to Wikipedia)

1. Feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.

2. Having a sense of confidence in or satisfaction with (a person, arrangement, or situation).

(I just copied and pasted that definition from FringeGirl ;)

Here goes:  DAY 1 of Happy

I really like these people...

I'm happy to have them.  To take care of them, pick up after them, and make them meals they don't always appreciate.  I'm happy to share this journey with them.

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Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Ok, so I have scientifically drawn a winner from the give-away from last week.  

I can prove it.  Sort of.  

I went to Random.org which generates all kinds of junk randomly for ya.  I see it on peoples blogs all the time, however, the mystery of how to get it to show up on my blog still eludes me.  Oh well.  

The first time I put the numbers in,  it chose comment number 10, which was Tina, the mom of Haleigh who created the amazing CD.  I'm guessing she has a copy already *wink* so I did it again...which is totally not cheating, right?

The 2nd time I did the random drawing it picked number FIVE.  Which is Jodie.  Yay Jodie!  This cracks me up.  I've only done a few giveaways on this blog, and I sorta think Jodie has won before?!?  Have you won before Jodie?!? Random.org is your friend, my friend!

Thanks to all to entered, you're the coolest.  And there's still plenty of time to visit Lullabies for Africa and download it or buy your own copy.  You can even just download your fav songs, if you like.  Every. little. bit.  helps.  

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Civility

 Every now and then, someone shares a link to something, via Facebook or Twitter or a blog, and I read it and it changes me. 


Usually the link is shared by my friend Heth.  She's got this amazing ability to come across really fantastic stuff.  I'm quite certain it's one of her spiritual gifts.


Yesterday, she shared this link.


I've read it six times.  After I post this, I'm going to walk over to the printer and print. it. out.  


If you are a parent, or are ever planning to be a parent, it's a must read.  It's short  and simple, and punch-you-in-the-gut good.  


I am not a "yeller" by nature.  I don't scream and shout or totally fly off the handle (generally.)  But I have a tone.  A tone I use with my kids when they are not doing or listening or being as I think they should.  I've never thought anything of it.  I'm the mom, they're the kids.  


 Many parents feel free to speak to their children with a level of incivility they would not use with anyone else they know. They bark orders. They raise their voices. They use sarcasm and contempt: “Seriously? That’s how you cleaned your room?” They poison civil language with contemptuous tone: “Ryan, please put your shoes on.” They patronize. They eye-roll or sigh. They construct a cocktail of word choice, tone, and body language that they would not serve to a co-worker, a friend, or a stranger on the street. And then they serve it liberally to an under-aged consumer - the smallest neighbor they are called to love preferentially - their own child.

Some things make you hit your knees...this one did me.  I can't even number how many times, in the past 24 hours, that I started to tell them something and stopped mid-sentence...realizing that my tone was not respectful.  Without a doubt I have authority over them.  But I have not always been exercising that it in a way that conveys respect for them.  

They know I love them.  Without a doubt.  But do they know I respect them?  Working on my tone...praying God would help me to speak (with authority and love) to them in the same respectful way I would a friend or stranger.  










*Side Note*  There's still plenty of time and space to enter the giveaway from Monday.  If you've "liked" it on FB or ordered the album or even one song, please leave a comment to you can be entered!  Thank you!

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Lately...

A few weeks ago I complained about a nasty canker sore I had on the inside of my cheek.  It's long gone now, but I still can't help but think about it.


It hurt that bad.


In comparison to my body, it was minuscule in size.  The rest of my body felt just fine, in fact. Healthy as a horse.  Yet...it made my days miserable.  Especially one of the things I enjoy most...eating.


It's like that in life though, isn't it?  So many things to be thankful for.  So many good things happening, and all it takes is that one little thing to distract us from the rest.  To somehow make all the other great things suddenly seem less enjoyable.


It's like that in churches too.  Ask anyone who goes to a church and they can likely think of a situation they've experienced.  Maybe they enjoy so much about their church...but there's that one little thing they can't quite get over. Ask those in ministry and you'll likely receive a faint smile and shrug of the shoulders.  Either because they're doing all they can to hand over everyone's one little thing to their Savior who promises He has the shoulders to bear it...because they do not, or because although so many people in their church are faithful and encouraging and growing in their faith and are joyful...there's that one...


It was tough to ignore the canker sore.  Sometimes, I just decided I would not be able to enjoy food until it was gone.  Totally and completely gone.  


And other times, I resolved to eat things that didn't bother it so much...because really, one little canker sore surely cannot ruin everything...that would be ridiculous.


God's teaching me to {isolate} things.  To take captive the things that seek to destroy joy.  The things that distract me from Him.  And it's hard.  And it's constant.  Because isn't it true, there's always something.


Am I saying that people are sometimes like canker sores?  Yes.  Yes I am.  


Praying today that God helps me not to be that canker in someone else's life...and that I learn to not let the canker in my own life steal the joy from all He's doing...because He's doing some really amazing stuff.

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