Happiness is…

I remember my mom playing a song on the piano called “Happiness is.” I looked on line for the lyrics and the ones I found seem to be a little different than the ones I remember. Maybe my mom will find them and add them here in a comment.

I felt a bit snarky after writing that book post. This week has had some real snarky moments for me. And trust me, there’s another snarky post in the works. But I wanted to take this moment and write about some of the little things that define moments of happiness for me. Guess I need to pause and count my blessings a bit more often.

So here’s my list.

Happiness is…

Hershey’s Bliss – I got a bag of the dark chocolate for my birthday. They are aptly named. Bliss. For they truly are. I’ve been saving the last one.

Pot roast with potatoes and carrots – I love coming home to that smell. Especially because it means I didn’t burn the house down leaving the crock pot on while I went to church (something I always worry about in the back of my mind when I’m using the crock pot). There are few things that taste as good and as much like home. And the one I cooked last Sunday was so moist and tender it practically fell apart on your fork. And the potatoes that are in the pot too are seasoned so wonderfully. It’s been great as left-overs too. Yummy. I don’t cook many things, but I like to think that the few things I do cook, I cook very well.42D

New school supplies – Yes I went and bought a new package of pens and pencils for this new school year. I even bought a package of white board markers because it always seems like the class I’m teaching in never has any good ones. So these ones are mine and will stay in my back pack.

Making new clothes that turn out exactly how I want – I bought a yard an something of a tannish linen fabric more than a year ago. I think I was going to use it to make pants. But I never did. Lately I’ve been thinking I wanted a knee length khaki type skirt. So I pulled out the fabric Saturday night. I had an off-white invisible zipper in my stash (this is why I buy the basic colors of zippers whenever they go on sale). I really like how Simplicity 5914 turns out (I’ve made it twice before, a long one in a printed corduroy and a short one in a stretch suede). So I whipped out a skirt Saturday night and I love it. It’s my new favorite skirt. It reminds me of the skirt Meg Ryan wears at the end of You’ve Got Mail. I’ll get a picture of the actual skirt after I do laundry.

Sewing in general – I had so much fun getting my nephew’s quilt done in one week. And while work on my hand quilting hasn’t moved forward much lately, I like that I’m leaving it up. It’s brightening my living room. And I’ll get it done eventually so it can brighten my bedroom. I do need to figure out if there’s another way to position the frames so it’s easier to get in my front door though. Sewing is my therapy. And I love it.

Yo-Yo makers – More specifically on the sewing thing, I love my yo-yo makers. They are so much fun. And easy! I have the small, large, and extra-large circle ones. I can sit down with a pile of scraps and whip out a bunch of them. I need to figure out what to do with all of them. I’m going to be using a bunch to embellish a wall quilt. And I’ve added buttons to the middle of some of them and put pins on the back and pinned them to my bags.

Finding pants that fit, on sale – You wouldn’t believe how hard that is for me. Most styles don’t even come in my size. Or if they do, they are petite, so they’d be far too short for me. And then the ones that do come in my size and my length either sit below my hips or at my hips which feels weird, or they sit just above my hips which means they are big and gappy at the top. It shouldn’t be so hard to find pants that are my size, my length, and sit at my natural waist. But it is. I’ve only found one brand of jeans that actually does that, and I’m always looking. And they were on sale again last weekend. Which was good, because one of the pair I bought three years ago is starting to wear out where it wouldn’t be good to.

My new journal – I love the feel and smell of the leather on it. And I’m real excited that my cursive is doing real well too. I decided I wanted to do this new one in cursive and I was a bit worried about how that would work out since I haven’t really written in cursive more than to write a check in, um, probably close to twenty years.

Pandora – I love that I can listen to exactly the music I want, without having to listen to music I don’t like, commercials, or stupid DJs.42D

And my friends here in Tucson and elsewhere – I love all ya’all. Thanks.42D

I’ll count more blessings later.