happiness

Father Brown

The boy was having an I miss nana day today. This time last year she was so sick and so much happened we all haven’t had time to really process her death.

So he decided to spend the afternoon binge watching Father Brown – which was one of their shows.

That kid really loved his nana. Almost every day he would go over and visit her. Sometimes for a few minutes, but often they would spend hours together – talking, having tea, watching tv.

It’s a special relationship kids have with their grandparents. One of my most important relationships was with my own grandma so I know how they feel and how great the loss of their grandparents is.

But, there are these memories, these special ways of celebrating and remembering the love that was shared. Thank goodness for that.

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happiness

Explain yourself

I was telling the kids today how someone close to me had spent a lot of time trying to explain their actions – maybe justify their actions is a better way to put it. The boy looked at me and said

You should never have to explain your actions to someone else. If you’re doing the right thing – there’s never any explanation for your actions needed. Look at Grandpa – he never had to explain or justify what he did or who he was – he lived with integrity and you never had to doubt that what he said and what he did was the right thing.

I was so proud of my kid for picking up on that and understanding what it means to live by your word. I’m so grateful that my kids had my dad as a role model for as long as they did.

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happiness

The power of friends

I spent some time today reconnecting with some girlfriends. We all get busy and have responsibilities and other priorities, but there’s nothing like good friends to make a soul smile.

I’m continuously grateful that we are home and I have my lifelong tribe around me again. It was good for me to learn how to make friends during our gypsy years, but man am I happy we are back where we belong.

Sometimes we need people to help hold us up, sometimes we need to be the ones doing that for others. But however it’s going, we need people we can count on in our lives.

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happiness

Historical preservation day

We set up at our community hall this morning and began our project of collecting community photos.

I had so much fun hearing some of the people come in and share old stories and memories of the hall and early ranch life out here. My cousin and I spent hours looking through old pictures and sharing our own thoughts about how our family has grown and who we are.

I’m so grateful I was able to be part of this process.

Even found an old wedding photo of my parents from 1967 in an old box

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happiness

Chair wars

The boy and I had some personal wellness time today as we tried out chairs at our Staples. We actually did need a chair, but the staff there were very understanding with our untraditional method of testing chairs.

I actually want to get one of the chairs but I’ll wait for it to go on sale.

Today is my dad’s birthday and I was feeling kind of sad and missing him. This was the perfect distraction and we both really needed the laughs.

That kid cracks me up.

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happiness

Pink

For the last week or so I’ve been on a huge Pink kick. I kind of forgot how much I like her music, but I downloaded a playlist on Spotify and it’s all we’ve been listening to – in the house, in the car, in our heads. I feel like she wrote the soundtrack to my life.

Today as we were driving to Calgary we played Trouble as loudly as the car speakers would let us and garnered some rather curious stares from the other cars as we went down the highway singing and car dancing and laughing.

I swear that woman is the best cure for sadness.

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happiness

No people

We had one of those rare days where we didn’t have to people. It seems like we are always needing to go whenever or do something.

And while there’s always plenty to be done, I think it was good for our souls to take this day.

Dad’s birthday is coming up, our first Christmas without mom is coming up. I feel like we are being overpowered by memories – good and sad – and sometimes we need to stop and let them settle.

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happiness

4H weigh day

It was weigh day at our 4H club this morning. I love our club – it’s small but the families are awesome and I’m grateful to be part of it

We finished off the day seeing the Grinch movie. I love the story – love can conquer all. It really is the most important thing in the world. We choose either fear or love every second of every day.

Fear still gets in there a lot, but love is winning. I can feel it.

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