happiness is the new black

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…and you can DM (direct message) your “happies” there too!

#30 Happy-making music: “Under the Stars” by Sunflow

#29 I really appreciate how on top of it you are when it comes to parenting our children. Whether you’re home for the day or passing through between work appointments, you step in readily and easily. It’s a great comfort to me and a real blessing to us all.

#28 happiness is hearing your 5 year old read almost the whole story himself for the first time!

#27 Watching how sweet my children are is the perfect cure to how crummy the world can sometimes be. In the end, it doesn’t matter what else is going on…my family makes me happy.

#26 I love walking my daughter to school. It’s a wonderful way to start the day for both of us.

#25 When I ask my first graders, “What does it mean to be a kid?” The first answer I get is: “To be a kid means to be cared for by people who love you.” Oh how lucky to work with kids everyday and hear their wonderful ideas about life!

#24 I miss you when you’re gone. Not because of all you do. Not because you are my rock. Not because our lives are in some ways irrevocably intertwined together. I miss you because I adore you and I genuinely miss your company. And, yes, missing you in this way makes me very happy. Now, hurry back!

#23 I am struck 1000 times a day with my daughter’s astonishing beauty.

#22 I’ve got a smile on my face today I can’t deny. My family has been approved to begin interviewing in the doggie adoption process! If all goes well and a special someone loves us in person 1/2 as much as we love her on paper there will be a new 10 year-old blond girl in our family holiday photo this year!

#21 Last week our son Benjamin signed, “Daddy” for the first time. Nothing touches our hearts tenderly than seeing our son communicate with us in American Sign Language.

#20 Happiness is …

when your 4-yr old runs to rescue you from a “tickle-attack” from daddy with all his little might, shouting:”No, she’s mine!”, gets you away, you both run for cover, daddy “attacks” & it all ends in loads of giggles & laughs… hahahhaha ahehhehehhehe

#19 Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others. -Buddah

#18 I was checking out my pores in the mirror while my 5 year old took her last pee of the evening.

Mama?
Yup.
This is the most beautiful toilet paper, it has flowers and roses on it!
Huh?

I checked out the paper and sure enough, imprinted was a design alternated the images she spoke of.

It is pretty, M, gee, I never even noticed it and you noticed it for me, thank you! There are so many pretty things in this world, I just love it!
Me too, Mama! So many beautiful people we might just all explode! Explode with love!!!!

She giggled and wiped. I giggled and reminded her to wash her hands. We headed back to bed, her top bunk, crawled in it together while I sang her to sleep.

Sigh. Happiness for real.

#17 Holding hands with my children. All mothers do this. We take our children’s hand instinctively when crossing a street or walking in a parking lot as a protective measure. Still, I always feel a special connection that goes way beyond the practicality of it. It’s a sweet little moment’s pause that swells my heart every time. I love it.

#16 I’m working harder than I ever have, I have less money than I’ve ever had, but I’ve found a career that I love, that I’m good at, and in which I’m starting to make a name for myself.  My only dilemmas are delicious ones, I’ve started dreaming at night again, and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I’ve never been happier in my life – no matter how often I forget it during the day!

#15 Loralee is happy http://loraleeslooneytunes.com/

#14 She fell asleep in just her Pull-up, my chocolate-eyed, three year old daughter.   After I was sure she was snoozing soundly, I pulled back the covers and felt warmth radiating from her tiny body.   Still so small in her Bigness, my heart melted a little more.   I gently slipped her arms and head – matted, sweet smelling hair and all -  through the holes of the soft t-shirt I had worn just minutes prior.   My own heat still lingered on the fabric and I hoped the familiar aroma of mama would keep her content through the night. It looked like a dress on her and I was awash in gratitude and pure bliss in that moment:  my girl, turning into such an independent spirit, traveling in dream land, her skin as soft as a rose.

#13 Hearing my speech delayed 2 year old shout “I love you too!” with clarity.  It was worth the wait.

#12 My preschooler runs to me and gives me an enormous hug every time I
pick him up from school.

#11 Happiness is my 5 year old son re-enacting the book “The Kissing Hand” each night this and last week.  He gently takes my hand and kisses it and puts it on my face and I say “Campbell loves me, Campbell loves me” and then I do kiss his and put it on his cheek and he says “Mommy loves me, Mommy loves me.”   The last few nights he has now added the sequel to the sweet gesture and is putting one in my hand, closing my hand, and telling me it is to keep in case I need it tomorrow.

#10 “You have it all…I’m so glad, babe” Wonderful words excerpted from an email sent to me by a special someone who is only starting to realize what “all” really is. And what it isn’t.

# 9 i just got a text message from my “significant other” that said “we’re twins”.

#8 Watching my 6 year old daughter walk out the door this morning with a big plastic dinosaur sticking out of her backpack for share day at school.

#7 Yesterday morning, my husband and I went out to our monthly breakfast with our elderly neighbors who live across the street. I have found myself dreading this “task”…I have lot’s to do on Saturday mornings (who doesn’t??), it takes up half my morning, and while we take seperate cars (ostensibly because we have to “do errands” afterwards”), driving behind them to the restaurant makes me a little crazy.

We get there, and as we walked in the door, we heard a loud thump behind us. My neighbor had tripped over the edge of a step, and fell face-forwards into a wooden railing. As she lay there, face down, blood streaming from her face, moaning in pain, arm at an unnatural angle, time stopped briefly. She was no longer a task…this was my mom-away-from-home (ours live 3000 miles away). This is the woman who puts funny Marmaduke cartoons in our mailbox for us. This is the woman who makes sure we have a place to go every holiday. This is the woman who tucks red velvet cake in to a leftover plastic container, and carefully negotiates the busy street to bring it to us – just because she knows we’re working late.

But while she is my mom-away-from-home, she’s much more than that to her husband of 60-something years. As we all stood waiting for the paramedics to arrive, he knelt down beside her, told her how much he loved her, and that everything would be alright. He reminded her of funny stories from their past, like the time she drove his favorite old Chevy truck into the barn…in reverse. Or the time their son declared he wanted to have a pet skunk. And as Kristen’s husband told her, my neighbor told his wife that she was his world. He couldn’t get up when he was done, and I know he was in pain himself, but it was a special moment that all of us will never forget.

#6 Last night I attended my Uncle’s 65th birthday party. He is a very special person, and I love him very much. He is not related to me by blood, but that does not matter at all. As we were getting ready for the great cake cutting, my Aunt put on a song to tell him how much she loves him. There was not a dry eye in the room, and it was just fantastic to see how much they love one another, and how much everyone in the room loves him.

#5 Happiness is beautiful, just like my Rose.

Even though she is only one and has but two “words” in her vocabulary to date she is very expressive when it comes to her happiness. She wakes from sleep and smiles a big toothy grin at me, which truly melts my heart. Today she giggled as I sprayed her little tiny piggy toes with the water hose. It was simply too much. She seems to be at ease around us and doesn’t pull the little temper tantrums like she does with her parents or other grandparents. She loves to share with us. She shares with whatever may be in her hands. Pacifiers, bottles, magazines, blocks…simply…whatever. I like that as her Mama walks to her car, Rose hip hugging the whole way, that Rose will watch me until she no longer is able. So I will smile and wave. Prayers for their safety as they drive away. I love them and they are my beautiful happiness.

#4 Happiness is delicious peace

#3 Happiness to me is seeing my children’s faces in the morning and when they come home from school. My heart just melts over and over again

#2 My heart did a little leap when my bookworm, socially awkward little boy was approached by two other little boys to climb the fence by the golf course and collect bugs in the high grass. They wanted nothing more than to have him join them. And he did. And he caught a grasshopper. And the look on his face was priceless.

#1 My husband just told me that I am the most important person in his life… I am amazing and he is sorry if he sometimes lets me forget it…I am in love

(The following has been cross posted from It’s All Fun & Games with my dear friend, Kristin’s permission and blessing. As I told her, she breathed life into my long-standing idea of just such an outlet with this post. So she gets to have the Honorary First Post all to herself. To learn more about the origins of this blog and how to contribute, please visit our About page.)

An Outlet You Say?

As in, “place to vent/worry/bemoan/wonder”.

Well, what about an outlet to be grateful… has it become so cynical that it’s bad form to gush about all the good?

I think not.

My husband just told me that I am the most important person in his life… I am amazing and he is sorry if he sometimes lets me forget it…

I am in love.

Now, go kiss someone.