Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!

August 16, 2005    By: Kristen J @ 10:14 pm   Category: Happiness,Life

It seems that most of us spend a lot of time whining over the bad things in life. I know I have done my share of wishing for a new day when I will be a college graduate, or I can quit this crappy job, or have a baby, or have the baby sleep through the night. The list could go on for quite some time. It’s a hard urge to fight, yet fight we must because “men are that they might have joy.”

Today I’ve been thinking about the things in life that have brought me joy and I’d like to list them here:

Birfday parties and being the birfday girl
Picking blackberries on the way to school
Climbing really high in a big tree
Getting an actual part in the school play (not stuck back in the chorus)
Sitting in a big, fat tube floatin’ down a lazy river
Getting your first love note
Making the team
Wildflowers
A song you like so much you listen to it about a hundred times in a row (my kids hate it when I do this)
Super chubby babies
Art (creations of man, not a guy named Art)
Holding hands with a boy for the first time
Letters from friends in your mailbox
Books
Finding long lost money in your pocket
Learning things you thought you were too old to (playing piano and skateboarding)
Swimming under water
Dave Barry, Erma Bombeck, funny people in general
My baby laughing hysterically every time I try to brush her teeth
People saying my daughter looks like me
My son’s belly laugh
Canoodling with my husband
Erin’s long golden locks
Getting answers to prayers

This list could go on for quite some time too but enough about me, how about you.

14 Comments

  1. Oh yeah, dreams where I can fly like peter pan and also shiny stuff

    Comment by Kristen J — August 17, 2005 @ 12:35 am

  2. Football

    Comment by V the K — August 17, 2005 @ 8:07 am

  3. Sorry for the threadjack, but did you know that there is a Bloggernacle Fantasy League, V? Look here.

    Comment by John C. — August 17, 2005 @ 8:10 am

  4. Music.

    Photography.

    Computers.

    Comment by Susan M — August 17, 2005 @ 8:27 am

  5. summer rainstorms

    road trips with friends

    my boy telling me “lub you”

    Comment by bryan — August 17, 2005 @ 9:18 am

  6. Raindrops on roses? Whiskers on kittens? C’mon, where are the standards?

    Comment by The Only True and Living Nathan — August 17, 2005 @ 10:11 am

  7. I was wondering when that song would come up! I can relate to most of the things on that song except “warm woolen mittens” itchy!

    Comment by Kristen J — August 17, 2005 @ 10:29 am

  8. John C — Thanks for the link, but I already engage in enough time-wasting hobbies. ;-)

    Comment by V the K — August 17, 2005 @ 12:03 pm

  9. Uhhhh… What is “canoodling”?…

    Nathan — We get a lot of that song (My Favorite Things) around my house. I learned the chord progression to it out of one my old jazz fake books so I often sit down and bust out a jazz waltz version of it on our piano. I only know the chords though and I’m not good enough to play the melody too so I often talk one of the girls into singing the melody. (All my girls have great voices even though they are a tad square (L7) still — I’m working on ’em though…)

    Comment by Geoff J — August 17, 2005 @ 1:08 pm

  10. canoodle- to engage in petting, caressing, or lovemaking

    Geez, I thought it meant snuggling. Oh thanks Geoff, now I’m getting all graffic on the ‘nacle. No canoodling for you!:-)

    Comment by Kristen J — August 17, 2005 @ 5:46 pm

  11. Anne Tyler, Elizabeth Berg, Kaye Gibbons, and Amy Tan all publish at the same time and I have all their books and my family is gone for the weekend. Oh, I would have such a blast.

    Comment by annegb — August 17, 2005 @ 6:36 pm

  12. Hey, I love Amy Tan, haven’t read the others guess I’ll have to check ’em out.

    Comment by Kristen J — August 17, 2005 @ 9:33 pm

  13. what I love today….
    The school nurse calling me today telling me that my oldest daughter made friends with a boy in a wheelchair and would it be okay if she was trained to wheel him to a couple of classes….YES I am a good mom, well at least at the moment.

    We need these moments to keep us sane!!!!

    Comment by Paige — August 23, 2005 @ 8:51 pm

  14. Nice Paige! Yes you are a good mom indeed.

    That reminds me — I saw the greatest ad on BYU TV recently. Some nerdy kid in a high school hallway scene and had his books and papers spilled all over the floor by a passing bully. A big strapping jock kid was nearby hanging with his jock and cheerleader friends and noticed it. He paused for a minute then went over to help the nerdy kid pick up his books. For some reason I found it touching (even with the stereotyped characters).

    There is something very powerful and moving about seeing the strong help the weak simply out of compassion.

    Comment by Geoff J — August 23, 2005 @ 9:12 pm