A few more tidbits

I have a few more bits I collected from the Happiness Project that I wanted to pass along. I think they are interesting concepts.

*Try a week of extreme nice. Choose a person you would like to try this on, and try to do all you can to be extremely nice in all you say and do for them. This would be very interesting and I think would show you how much more you could do or say to show your love for them when you are being very deliberate about it.

*Fog happiness. This term means a feeling of happiness you get from something in your life, that when closely examined doesn't really seem to bring you any happiness at all, yet somehow it does. An example given was throwing a party-when you look at all it takes to actually get it together, it's hard to say for many that you loved doing it as you executed the details of making it happen, but overall when you look back at it, you say you were happy throwing that party. This term was also applied to parenting; when you look at the minutue of each thing you do to parent each day, you might not get happiness from many of those details of the parenting, yet when someone asks you what makes you happiest in your life, you say your children. Hence the term, fog happiness.

Food for thought.

In the same book vein, I just finished Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. (As always my book links take you to Amazon... initially because, why not? and now, because my husband works there so why not support the cause?)

I found this book really interesting once I got into it, and filled with surprises. Theirs is a caustic relationship, but that is what makes this read all the more fascinating. I recommend it!

Changes

At 18 months, Josie only had about 3 words that she used properly, in context. I really wasn't too concerned, as she has 4 people regularly waiting on her and kissing her cute little butt, but the doctor wanted her to see First Steps and have her evaluated for speech, which we did, and for about a month, Josie has been seeing a developmental therapist once a week. I have to think it has helped, because as of now, she has about 30 words. Either that, or it was just the same timing and it would have happened anyway. I am going to go with the idea that therapy has helped pull those words out and give us good strategies on how to do that.

Tonight, she gave me that 30th word for the list, punk. Around here, I use the word "punk" as a term of endearment, despite how it might come across. In storytelling, however, it is another thing, as in, I was waited on in the store by a young high school punk. But, for our purposes tonight, I was calling her a punk in the most loving way.

A few quick thoughts tonight

Hi there, nothing earth shattering to discuss tonight, just thought I would share a few more of the tidbits I best liked about the Happiness Project book.

*The One Minute Rule- don't postpone anything that can be done in one minute. (This would sure eliminate a lot of the clutter and "big clean up" sessions I have if I would stick with this idea)

*Act the way we want to feel. I shared this one with Jack, and we have tried it when we are feeling tired/lazy but want to feel energetic, by going outside and taking a bike ride, etc. and pretending like we are full of energy to try to get us there. I like this concept.

*Six seconds is the minimum hug time to promote bonding. Try it out.

and finally,

*People are 97% more likely to feel close to a family member who often expresses affection.

All sensible stuff, but we all need good reminders! Happy Thursday!

Luke-isms

I have tried to keep track of a few Luke comments over the last few months so I can record them for posterity.

*Running errands just he and I (love the conversation we have when it's just the two of us!) "There are some things that have never happened to this family-poor, lose your life, lost in the desert, or run out of gas."

*On our friends the Millers who recently moved to China: "If there was a big battle, like World War 3, would the Millers still cheer for America?"

*On being told that we were going to spend the night at Grandma and Pappy's: "YES! I just like to hear the birds cheeping in the morning!"

*And while we were visiting them, Pappy said to Luke, "You'd better eat your dinner, Grandma worked all day making this!" So Luke replied, "Pappy, didn't you give Grandma any lovin' today?"

*And tonight, after camping with friends from Iowa and developing a small boy crush on his friend Leo, he said, "I just keep saying to myself, DREAM ABOUT LEO! DREAM ABOUT LEO! before I go to bed! I mean, don't forget your math facts, but dream about Leo. I tell ALL my layers to do that."

OMG

This is what you are saying to yourself when you happen to log on and see I have a new post, right?

Ok, well, here's the truth. I enjoy blogging as long as I don't put any pressure on myself about the frequency. And I have several blog posts composed in my head most of the time. But my pitfall is the actual ACT of putting thought to paper. Or keyboard. Or whatever. It's not that I don't like to do it, it's just that at the end of the day after putting 3 kids to bed, cleaning up the kitchen/dishes, and catching up on laundry, I really mostly feel like pouring a cold beer into a mug and sitting down to a new episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians. Which is a cold hard truth that I am not afraid to admit to. It's not that I look up to them, strive to be like them, or even long for their lifestyle. It is just plain interesting to watch because I think they act like their true selves for the most part, and it's interesting to watch someone else's life.

So, I am back, with as little meaningful and worthwhile material as I had before, but at least I have a place to brain dump again and I guess that's kind of fun.

So let's kick it off with a Wal-Mart eyeshadow discussion. The title of this post is called, what would you do?

Several months ago, I was shopping at Wal-Mart for a few things, against my better judgement of course, but it's way closer and sometimes that's all it is. I walk out, unload my cart, and return my cart to the corral. As I do this, I notice a brand new eyeshadow in one of the other carts pushed into the corral. Hmm. What to do. I pick it up, and put it in my purse, soon to land in my bathroom drawer to remain unopened until I had this "conversation" with ya'll.

So here's some questions for you.
*Does this feel like stealing to you?
*Would it feel different if you had found it lying in the parking lot on the ground?
*Would you think twice if you found a dollar lying in the parking lot? Would you keep it, or return it to Wal-Mart in case someone came back for it?
*What are the chances that a person would go home, realize the eye shadow hadn't gotten home with them, and return to Wal Mart inquiring if someone had turned it in?
*If this was Target instead of Wal Mart, would I have gone back in to return it?

One of the underlying issues was that I felt the chances were slim to none that someone would come back in asking about the eye shadow. Therefore, Wal-Mart would just end up returning it to the shelf and reselling the item, making excess profit for themselves. Which they didn't deserve to, so is it any better or different if I just kept the item? So is it my animosity towards Wal-Mart that made me say they didn't deserve to make another profit on this same item and it might as well be me who kept it?

What do you think? Please chime in, even if you don't know me personally but read this, I just think it's an interesting and thought provoking conversation to have!

And welcome back! (I hope!)