Have a Fantastic Rest of the Year!

   

TONI SAYS, "HERE'S TO A FANTASTIC REST OF THE YEAR!  WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED THIS MONTH?  WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR?

I want to say, "thank you" to Toni at One Chocolate Box for coming up with "The New Year Project" and inviting me (and the blogosphere) to join in the ride.  What a great opportunity to stretch the resolutions of one day out over a whole month.  If you are looking to create a new habit, a month is a perfect amount of time to solidify that in your practice.

I have joined many, many month-long blog projects.  Until this month, I have only completed it one time.  So I'm feeling pretty dang pleased with myself.  Not only have I completed The New Year's Project, but also my first NaBloPoMo and Jeff Goin's 500 Words a Day Challenge.  I might be pretty hard to deal with the next couple of days, cause I'm feeling pretty good about myself!

My studies are also going much better than last semester, so I'm very, very happy about that.  We filed our taxes today, and they were 'accepted' by the IRS, so our return should be coming next week and I am OVER THE MOON about that one!  Party at my house just as soon as our temps here in Kentucky get to be higher than those in Alaska.  

For the rest of the year?  Wow...there are so many options.

1. I will finish a short e-book to use as a giveaway on my blog.
2. I will participate in and complete NaNoWriMo.
3. We will fine-tune our family budget.
4. We will increase the variety in our garden and maybe add some animals.
5. I will increase the amount of book-related posts on my blog (reviews, interviews, guest posts, etc)

Well, that ought to keep me out of trouble...for a while! ;)

What are you working on for the year?  Maybe someone else is working on the same thing and you can help each other out!

Happiness for Young and Old

   

TONI SAYS, "WRITE A LETTER TO A CHILD ON WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED ABOUT HAPPINESS."

Dear Young'un,

You will have times of great happiness and great sorrow in your lives, and everything in-between.  I hope and pray there is way more happiness than anything else.  Reversals in our lives help us to appreciate successes.  Sadness makes us value happiness all the more.

I've been both in my life.  And let me tell you something, "Happiness is a WHOLE lot more fun!"  Would it surprise you to learn that some of that is in your control?  If an acquaintance of yours makes you feel bad, you can choose to hang out with other people.  There are people out there willing and able to inspire you to reach beyond your circumstances and bring about wonderful things in your life.

It also helps to appreciate the good that we already have.  Some days that is easier, some days harder.  Maybe on a given day you can't find anything.  Having a roof over your head is a whole lot nicer than not.  Most likely one or more family members loves you and wants the best for you.  That is a HUGE plus.  A teacher that takes extra time to help you understand a problem at school.  Wonderful.

But what about the days where nothing goes right?  Maybe your mom or dad lost their job and is really stressed out.  Maybe you did poorly on a test at school and you don't want to tell your parent(s).  Well, maybe that's the day that the little puppy in the pet store window on your walk home comes up to the window and wags his tail furiously in greeting like he is really happy to see you.  Maybe a beautiful little flower pushes up out of nowhere in between sidewalk blocks in the concrete jungle.

You can't stop all of the rain in life.  But you can know there is sunshine.  You can help spread it to other people.  Then you can be your own and someone else's happiness.  What a wonderful gift.

-a tired, old (happy) coot

Role Models

  

TONI ASKS, "WHO BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN YOU?  HAVE YOU TOLD THEM OF THEIR INFLUENCE ON YOU?"

I really, really liked talking with my husband's Mamaw.  When we moved to Kentucky from Texas, our children were 8, 6, and 2.  We moved into a mobile home (aka trailer) next door to her house.  My father-in-law lived (and lives) across the back field.

Of course, we had visited from Texas before we moved up here.  The first time, the boys were 4 and 3 and our daughter was not yet born.  Neither the children nor myself had met anyone from Chris's father's side of the family up until that point.  When the boys and I walked up and knocked on the side door, Mamaw came and said "Howdy," through the screen.  When she saw my husband, this little five-foot-nothing white-haired woman said, "I oughtta throw you across the yard," (for not bringing her great-grandsons up sooner).  Everyone laughed.  The bonding was instantaneous.

We'd be over at Mamaw's almost every day.  She would still cook sausage gravy and biscuits for breakfast in the early days of our sojourn here, and made 'dressing' a couple of times a week.  They were two dishes that Chris had loved while he was growing up.

I don't know that I ever told Mamaw what I thought of her while she was still here (she passed last March), but I hope I tried to show it.

Eventually, we moved out of the trailer, and rented several places over the next six or seven years.  We still visited, but less and less frequently, depending on how far away we lived at the time.  Sometimes we would go to my father-in-law's house and "stop in" at Mamaw's either before or afterwards.  I felt bad that these were kind-of 'blow through' visits.

So I made a point to sit in the kitchen and have a coffee with Mamaw and chat for a while.  Coffee for Mamaw was a spoon of instant in a cup of water that had been heated up in the microwave.  At the table, the cup would have a saucer and some of the coffee would be spooned or poured into the saucer (to cool it down, maybe?) before drinking or spooning the coffee out of the saucer.  I tried to do it that way, I really did!  In the end, I drank coffee the way in which I was used, and that was ok by Mamaw.  We talked and laughed and talked some more.

I miss her.

Anything I Can Do, I Can do Better

  

  

TONI WANTS TO KNOW, "I THINK I WOULD BE BETTER AT _____ IF I _____."

I think I would be better at LIFE if I HAD MORE FAITH.

My biggest 'failures' in this game of life have come when I stayed inside my little nest and did not venture out.  Evidence the length of time it took me to come out of my shell for theatre's sake.  I get angry sometimes when I look at the years I wasted doing other things.  But I also realize I am not perfect and forgive myself for that and other failures.  Yes, I could have done things differently and had a very different life.  But I would not change my life now (with my family) for any amount of 'success' professionally.  And the past is the past, right?  I can't change it now, so I might as well take a look at things I can change.

My biggest 'successes' in life have come when I swallowed my fear, and took that extra step, most usually out of my comfort zone.

1.  I saw that audition poster and went, even though I had no time to 'prepare'.  As it happened, I got a part.  Would it mean I failed if I had not gotten a role in the play?  No.  It would have been a 'not in this case' scenario.

2.  I used to belong to a fraternal group called Job's Daughters.  I entered a state-wide pageant for the group when I was a little older than most of the other contestants and had never held a leading officer position.  I went on to represent the state in the international competition in Hawaii (talk about a bonus right there!)

3.  My mother-in-law tried to get custody of our children when we just had the two boys.  I was dealing with crippling depression at the time and could very well have thrown up my hands and surrendered.  But I did not.  They were my boys.  I went to a lawyer and found out she did not have the standing to bring the case.  After one hearing (which she missed), she dropped the case.

I'm not perfect.  Far from it.  But I'm pretty dang neat!  And so are YOU!  :O)

Could you share (in the comments) a time when you took a leap of faith and how it turned out?  You might have the exact information another needs to hear today!

Can You Believe January is Almost Over?

    

TONI SAYS, "WHEN I FEEL LIKE I'M LOSING TRACK OF MY RESOLUTIONS, I WILL..."

At some point, most people who make resolutions will come to a point where they have to decide whether they will continue to do with their work or if they will let a slip-up here or there cause them to abandon the changes they were trying to institute in their lives.

Let me tell you a story. Some of you have heard this before.  :O)

At some point in rather early in childhood, I decided I wanted to be an actress.  From junior high school on, there were 'drama' classes available at the school.  I took them.  In high school, I guess we were 'cooler' then, and drama became 'theatre'.

When I entered college, I declared as a Musical Theatre Major.  Apparently I was not too shabby in the acting department, but my singing was not something for which I had never had training.  I was incredibly, overly nervous about it.  At the end of freshman year, each MT student had to pass an audition to continue in the program.  (I cringe even now thinking of mine.)  One professor actually wrote on my sheet that I should find something else to do because I had no future in musical theatre.

I abandoned my dream.

Ten years and several lifetimes later, I went back to college and happened to get a part in a play.  For the next five-six years, I got a lot of parts in a lot of plays.

Do you see?

I had a TEN YEAR DERAILMENT in a 'resolution'.  And I went back.  And I took it up again.  It was worth it!

Do you know something?

YOU CAN TOO!

Doin' the Happy Dance

    

TONI ASKS, "YOUR HAPPINESS SHOULD DEPEND ON NOBODY BUT YOURSELF.  HOW CAN YOU TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR OWN HAPPINESS?"

The happiest I have ever been has been when I have taken that step out in faith.  Yes, I was scared, but I did it anyway.  That as much as anything else, showed me that what I did had a lot to do with whether or not I would be happy.  Sure, if someone walked up and gave me a winning lotto ticket, I would be happy.  (If the winning ticket were for a large amount, I would REALLY be happy! :O) )

But I can also be happy without winning a lotto jackpot.  And if you wait around for a jackpot to be happy, you'll probably be waiting for a very, very long time.  That is when you surrender your possibilities for happiness to someone or something else.  How sad.

My house is very crowded right now.  There are 2 adults (my husband and me), two teenage boys, 1 tween girl, four dogs and 10 puppies.

I could concentrate on the lack of organization, the fact that there is hardly ever a quiet moment, the stunning amount of trash generated.  I could go on for a while and get more disheartened and depressed at every step.

Or I could be happy that we are living in our own house.  Many people don't.  Some don't even have a place to live.  I could be happy that the house built by my husband's paternal grandparents is still in the family.  I could be happy that one of my children's grandfather's houses is minutes away, and that there is a lot of cross-generational contact.  (I really only knew one of my grandparents, and I knew Mamaw (husband's paternal grandmother) better than all of my direct grandparents altogether.  I am.

I would like to hug my house.

Resolutions Revisited

  

TONI ASKS, "HOW ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR RESOLUTIONS SO FAR?

Eh.

First of all, I did not make resolutions this year.  I went the "one word" route with the word "Order".  Is there more order in my life.  Marginally.  But some progress is better than no progress at all.

I am being more organized in keeping up with my schoolwork.  I'm caught up in everything (yay me!) and even ahead on some things.  I'm actually a little proud of that one.

My desk at which I study?  Um, not so much.  It is my goal to have it organized and/or cleared off by Monday, the 27th (of January).  Will someone remember to ask me on Monday if I've done it?

Enough about me.  Let's talk about you!

Did you make resolutions this year?  Goals?  Choose one word?  How is that working for you?

If you did resolutions and missed a day, don't worry about it.  If I were quicker on the draw, I'd send you a "get out of jail free" card.  Start again.  If you haven't missed a day - congratulations!  Whether you have missed a day or haven't, remember....YOU ROCK!

This is Me

   

TONI ASKS, "WHAT DON'T YOU LIKE ABOUT YOUR BODY?  WHAT STEPS CAN YOU TAKE TOWARD ACCEPTING, AND MAYBE LOVING, YOUR BODY?

I am overweight.  I dislike this more from a health perspective than an attractiveness point-of-view.  My father had a stroke at the age of 47 and passed away a week later - during my senior year of high school.  I was fine with blood pressure until I started having children.  Now I am on two medications.  I want to be here to see my children get married and raise families of their own.  Being at a healthier weight will not guarantee that, of course, but it could make the meantime more enjoyable.

For instance, my family recently went to Mammoth Cave in western Kentucky.  They wanted to do a mid-length tour that involved a LOT of steps.  I did not know if I would be able to take it, physically.  When you get to the cave entrance, basically the first thing you do is go down about 300-400 steps to get to the first chamber.  By the time we left that chamber, I was pulling myself up along the path by the handrails.  (Do you know how cold a metal handrail in a cave can get?)  At one point I was almost sure I was going to pass out or have some kind of attack.

You know what got me through?  (I mean other than mule stubbornness?)  The thought of my family, and the good time we were having.  We were all pretty winded by the time the tour was over.  I went straight to bed when we got home and spent most of the next day in bed.  My legs hurt for several days.

So, I give myself props that I completed that trek.

And I know that my worth as a person is not tied to my weight or physical condition.  (Yes, sometimes that is easier to remember than others.)  I like to think of a saying I saw on a poster or graphic once that went something along the lines of "I know I'm somebody because God doesn't make crap."  That's not to say I can't better organize the temple (body) I have been given.

Songs and Movies that Make You Feel Good

  

TONI SUGGESTS, "SHARE YOUR FEEL GOOD SONGS/MOVIES"

SONGS

Walking on Sunshine - Katrina and the Waves
Boondocks - Little Big Town
What do You Think About That - Montgomery Gentry
Pachelbel's Canon in D - Johann Pachelbel

MOVIES

Chariots of Fire
Dave
Doc Hollywood
Roman Holiday

These are by no means exhaustive lists...just a few to get our creative juices going.  What can you add to one or both lists?  Let's help each other out!

January 2015 - Looking Back

    

TONI SAYS, "NEXT YEAR I WANT TO LOOK BACK AND BE PROUD THAT I _____."

LuAnn says, "Next year I want to look back and be proud that I improved my grades."

I first went to college in the summer of 1978, in between my junior and senior years of high school.  It was some sort of "get a taste" of college thing.  The next year in autumn, I entered the University of Utah as a Musical Theatre Major.  I was also painfully shy at the time, and could not bring myself to audition.  (Anyone see trouble on the horizon with that one?)

After a disastrous first year audition, I switched to a 'business' major, much to the relief of my mother.  My heart wasn't in it.  After a year and a half, I dropped out and schlepped about for a few years.  When I returned to college in 1988 or 1989, I majored in Finance at Westminster College of Salt Lake City, graduating in May of 1992 with a BS degree and magna cum laude honors.

Flash forward twenty or so years, and I returned to college at SCC (Somerset Community College) to brush up my skills in preparation for applying to graduate school in Writing and Appalachian Studies.  Several red flags were flapping in my face, but somehow I did not see them.

First, I registered for four (count 'em, FOUR) bi-term classes, where they cram 16 weeks of material into 8 weeks.  

Secondly, my financial aid was delayed since I was a "first-time" borrower and I did not receive funds until 4 weeks into the classes.  So, I tried to do half the speeded-up courses without textbooks.  (Don't do that at home.  It is only for professionals or the truly insane.)

So, I (remember the magna cum laude degree with a 3.7 GPA?),   I am on academic suspension right now.  Ouch!  I could have worked harder but I should have just waited in the first place, or taken one or two classes.  

Anyway, that's not going to happen again.  So I am looking forward to this time next year, when I will have a much better report to give.

How to Make Anyone Happy

     

TONI ASKS, "SHARE YOUR FOOL-PROOF WAYS TO MAKE OTHERS HAPPY."

I don't think I have a 'fool-proof' way to make other people happy.  What makes one person happy may not work for another person.

I remember in junior high school, riding home one day with a friend of mine when she found out her grandfather had passed away.  She cried the rest of the way home.  I was a little at loose ends.  Only one of my grandparents was still alive.  The other grandfather had passed away before I was born.  I had only seen each of my grandmothers one time.  We talked for a while, and we played some kind of board game.  I tried to be sensitive to her feelings.  I think it helped her; she outright laughed at one point.  It did not 'make everything better', but maybe it provided some distraction.

I would try to find out what made a person happy and then help them get it.  Sometimes I can be direct and just ask.  Other times I have to ask around that question - like if I'm visiting someone in the hospital.  If it is someone I know well, I may try to direct the conversation towards a happier time, or something I know they enjoy.

If it is someone I do not know well, and there appeared to be a problem, I would ask them if there was any way I could help them.  That is better psychologically, I think, than asking, "What is wrong?"  I was delivering pizzas once (in Salt Lake City), and while returning to my car, a woman went quickly by, crying.  I asked her if she needed a ride somewhere.  She stopped and looked at me, like she was just then noticing my presence.  She continued on, walking slower.  I never found out why she was upset.  Did it help her to know that someone noticed and cared?  I hope so.

Can you share something you do that brings joy to the lives of others?  (I know that would make me happy!)

Have a GREAT weekend!

Stopping to Smell the Roses

  

TONI ASKS, "WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU STOPPED, SOAKED IN YOUR SURROUNDINGS AND LET YOURSELF SIMPLY BE?

I admit it.  Simply "being" is not one of my strong points.

Maybe sometimes in the mornings when I take out the dogs, I'll stretch my arms as high as they'll go, and wiggle my fingers to kind of say hello to the day  I breathe in the cool morning air, purposely step out of the shadows into the new day's sunlight and feel like a flower opening up for the day.

Because I'm Worth It

   

TONI ASKS, "WHAT ARE THE THINGS YOU DO TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF?"

1. Take my two medications for my blood pressure daily.
2. Take my anti-depressant pill daily
3. Write in my blog.
4. Write creatively for pleasure.
5. Make polymer clay beads and crafts.
6. Hug my family.
7. Self-advocate.  (And here I really need to give a shout-out, thumbs-up etc etc to the staff in the admissions office at SCC and the school counselor for going above and beyond this week to help me get registered on time.)
8. Affirmations.
9. Express gratitude to others.
10. Read good books.

Put More Happiness in Your Life

  

TONI ASKS, "HOW CAN YOU PUT MORE HAPPINESS INTO YOUR LIFE?"

I really liked the way Toni phrased the question.  She could have said, "How can you get more  happiness...,"  instead.

To a certain extent, happiness can be received.  Despite what we read on the news, or see in certain reality TV shows, not everybody acts selfishly or misbehaves.  Some people do things just because it's the right thing to do, or because it helps someone else have a better day.  This type of happiness gives a bonus as well:  the giver often gets a happiness boost just like the receiver!

There is some happiness over which we have more control.  It's looking at the glass like it is half-full.  Sure, the kids (human, furry or both) may be having one of those days, the toilet may be overflowing...whatever.  We've all had days like that.  But the kids are healthy, the furry children give unconditional love, your best friend is a plumber and is on her way over to fix the toilet.  

It's taken me a lot of years to learn that last lesson.  And I don't have it mastered yet...but I am getting better.  And, shoot, I'm feeling better than when I started this post!

How do you put happiness into your life?

Stream of Happiness

         

TONI ASKS, "WRITE IN A STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS ABOUT THE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY.  ONLY WRITE ABOUT THINGS / SENSATIONS / EXPERIENCES."

Wow, it's been a while since I've written in stream of consciousness.  I have an overdeveloped sense of self-censorship.  All that worrying about if people will like it or hate it.  But that's not the purpose of this exercise.

Ok.  Things that make me happy.  Cotton candy, baklava, cheesecake, my children, my husband, owning a home (finally...after 52 years).  And it's my husband's paternal grandparents' home.  His Papaw passed in 1997 (I think) and his Mamaw passed last year.  Not only did we get to keep the land and house in the family, it provided a nice chunk of change for the remaining children (my FIL and his two brothers).  I am fully aware that if it were not for the sale of my mother's house, we would not have been able to pay cash for the place and would still be renting.  My goal now is to be worthy of that blessing.

I like acting on the stage.  At the end of my first year of college, I was told that I should find something else to do because I would never 'make it' in theatre.  OUCH!  Well, the person I was back then ... it was probably true.  So I switched my major to business, which pleased my mother to no end.  But it didn't make my heart sing.

I dropped out of college after the 2nd year and held a variety of jobs for the ensuing decade.  Each time I got a job, my mother would call her brother and the next time he would come out to visit, he would tell me I could do better than I was doing.  Ok.  The pizza restaurant, maybe.  But the International Department of a multi-state bank?  Really?

So I went back to college.  While there, I saw a notice for an audition for "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde.  I had to force myself to go, because I was still dealing with the feeling of failure from ten years earlier.  But I got a part.  Three days before the opening, the director did not show to the rehearsal.  So, the actors sat around (as we could not get into the rehearsal space) and had a line-through, with Southern accents.  And cousin Earnest was not taken off in Paris by a chill, but died in N'awlins of syphillis.  OMG, I have rarely laughed that much in my life!  Unfortunately, the director had done too much of a certain chemical substance and was in the hospital..  But other professors came together and somehow the show did go on.

Wow...this is getting long.  I better wrap up soon.   A good book makes me happy.  The last one I read was good, "Paper Roses" by Amanda Cabot.  Cuddly puppies and kittens and other furry critters.  Travel, Learning a new language.  A nice day out with the family.  Creating something - whether with words, polymer clay, wood, or any other number of media.

I reckon that'll do for now.

So, could you comment with one-three things that make you happy, off the top of your head?  I'd really, really, REALLY appreciate it! :O)

January 10

 

TONI ASKS, "WHAT ARE 5 THINGS YOU LOVE ABOUT YOURSELF?"

1.  I'm taking better care of myself than I used to.

2.  I'm going back to college for a second bachelor's degree (and eventually a master's degree).

3.  I've been blogging a lot more regularly than I did last year.

4.  My wedding ring (which is a copy of my husband's, but in a different size).

5.  My stick-to-it-iveness.

*+*+*+*+*

JOY DARE

Jan 1

• dogs and puppies barking when I get home.
• any music from "The Piano Guys"
• birds chirping in the morning

Jan 10

• lemonade
• baklava
• cheesecake

In Pace, et Unus

  

TONI ASKS, "HOW DO YOU FIND INNER PEACE?"

I find a lot of peace in solitude.  Not that I am anti-social, but with a small-ish farmhouse, one husband, two teen-age sons, one tween daughter, 3 cats, 4 adult dogs and 10 puppies, cut a woman some slack!  Sometimes I just have to get away from all that noise!

Meditation helps, but given the circumstances, at times it is difficult to quiet the mind sufficiently for meditation to work.  At those times, my mantra becomes "It won't last forever."

At other times, repetitive chores, or craft projects etc. can help shift my mind to the 'zen channel'.  Anything that involves the hands, especially, is good for this effect:  sewing, knitting, working with polymer clay and doing dishes by hand.  Walking helps as well.

It's almost like pulling a "Scarlett O'Hara" and saying that I'll think about that another day.  A conscious decision to put something on the back burner of my subconscious and work on another project for a while.  Have you ever been missing an object and you look and look but cannot find it?  Then when you stop looking for it, the item 'magically' appears?

How do you quiet your mind?

Today, I am linking up at Thursday Favorite Things blog hop at Katherine's Corner blog:

Change It Up

  

TONI ASKS, "HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT CHANGE?  HOW DO YOU COPE WITH/ADJUST TO CHANGE?"

Change is necessary.  Change definitely sounds better than stagnation.  Stagnation grows an organic cover and often smells bad.

That's not to say that change is always comfortable.  That's why most people resist it.  A part of the issue is whether or not we choose the change or not.

Sometimes the change is out of our control - the result of a natural disaster, loss of a loved one, personal health issues.  These changes suck.  Changes of these kind tend to bring out the best or worst in people.  We can curl up in a fetal position and 'accept our fate' or we can change to deal with the situation as best we can.  I would like to think I'm in the latter group, but that's easy to say sitting in my living room at my desk.

Sometimes the changes are of our choice.  You continue your education to get a better job.  You get married.  You have or adopt a child.  You set a goal - to run a 5K, to lose weight, to start a business - and follow through.  Those kinds of changes are exciting and help us to feel hopeful.  I don't think anyone minds those kind of changes.

I Cannot Fail

  

TONI ASKS, "WHAT WOULD YOU ATTEMPT IF YOU KNEW YOU COULD NOT FAIL?"

I would write my magnum opus stage play, take it to New York and/or London, star in it, and donate a portion of the ticket sales to charity.

From the time I was young, I wanted to be a stage actress.  My parents were not particularly supportive, as theatre was not a profession where it was common to make a lot of money.  I did not realize until later, of course, that their childhood circumstances made having enough money seem to be a really important thing.  (My father was the son of a poor farmer, and my mother was the child of an alcoholic.)

Being an introvert seemed to conflict with my desire to be an actress as well.  Even thinking about going to an audition used to give me an anxiety attack.  It was so tied up in my wanting to be liked, loved, or validated.  I had a horrible self-image.  Now, of course, with more than a few plays under my belt, it's not such a bad thing.  And even "successful" actors and actresses (in terms of consistency of work and money) get attacks of anxiety like that from time to time.

I guess I'm what most would call a 'character actor'.  That used to bug me because I thought that meant that people did not think I was 'good enough' to carry a play.  Now...that's not so important.

I haven't been in a play since before my first child was born ... a little over 17 years ago.  I've dabbled in playwrighting.  My best work was about a family of moonshine-brewers.  Go figure.

But rural south-central Kentucky is not exactly a hotbed of avant garde live theatre.  There is the Actor's Theatre in Louisville (about 1.5-2 hours away from here).  And if they can build one of the premiere US Shakespeare Festivals in Cedar City, Utah ... who knows, maybe I can build some kind of theatre festival in my neck of the woods.

Things that make you say, "Hmmmm."

What would YOU attempt if you knew you could not fail?

10 Happy Mama Makers

TONI ASKS, "DO MORE OF WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY.  WHAT ARE THOSE ACTIVITIES?"

1.  Acting in a stage play.

2.  Writing.

3.  Hugs (especially from family).

4.  Naps under one of Mamaw's quilts.

5.  Being a day or two ahead on blog posts.

6.  Emails or snail mails from friends and family.

7.  Phone calls from friends and family.

8.  Notebooks (blank or filled), pens, pencils, markers, pens, glitter glue)

9.  Baklava cheesecake.

10.  Prayer.

How about listing 1 or more things in the comments that make you happy?  I'd love to hear what they are!