There are many little things that are making me happy right now. Today, despite the cold, I am feeling just the slightest bit springish. It could be because I'm working on the garden plan but I think it has more to do with the fact that at 3:39 it is still bright out with no sign of darkness yet...I'm grateful for lengthening days. I'm also very much enjoying the geraniums I brought inside back in October. The red ones bring such a bright splash of colour to our home and it is such a simple delight to have something blooming inside at this time of year.
Molasses Softies are a treat that have made me happy many times over the years. I found this recipe when I was a child and it is still a favourite tea time treat - especially nice in the wintertime. I've put a link to an online recipe, the only thing I've changed is that I don't use corn syrup so I substitute honey or cane syrup.
Being (and
continuing to work on being) o r d e r l y is making me very happy. I know that more orderliness in our home over this next year will help to make our lives much more enjoyable as we go through some big changes this year and I am getting a surprising (to me) amount of pleasure out of the order we already have in place - such as weekly menu plans. Truly it will never cease to amaze me how such little changes in our daily round can make such big differences in our enjoyment of our days.
And fortuitous book finds are, as always, making me happy. Some weeks back I was cleaning out some of my boxes of books that have been packed up these last two and a half years. I found an old Alexandra Stoddard book (
Living Beautifully Together) and enjoyed re-reading it SO much that I immediately ordered all of her books in our library system. Books have always had a way of showing up in my life just when I most need the wisdom within them and so it is with
Alexandra Stoddard's books - the timing is just right.
What makes me happy is a lovely post from Heather on happy things. That geranium is just so darn cheerful...
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with you more. We hear the message when we are ready. I'll have to check out that book series.
ReplyDeleteLove that you are feeling more organized. It really does make a big difference in your life.
Continued blessings...
I find the weekly meal plan a HUGE reliever of daily stress...I've just started it recently, and it's completely eliminated the usual 3 o'clock stress of...Damn! What am I making for dinner?? I'm finding more order in my life these days and I'm a much happier person!
ReplyDeleteYour geranium is beautiful, I love the smell of them, they remind me of my Grandparents :)
ReplyDeleteI must get a weekly meal planner started, I hate tea time mainly because I have no idea what to make!
Alison
x
That perfectly red geranium against the white snow -- fabulous!
ReplyDeleteIn middle school, I discovered my mother's Alexandra Stoddard books. I suspect that I was the only 12-year old reading them; since then, her books have always been comfortable favorites.
Like others here, I love your happiness posts. Thanks, Heather.
Love your menu blackboard! We just had sweet potato and chick pea curry the other night. So yummy. Do you make your own curry blend? I started doing that and the family likes it even better now.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Nikki
Your new post makes me happy:-) Love the menu board! Love seeing what your family is eating for dinner... yum! Must search out some of those books. Love you!
ReplyDeleteI had forgotten about this author...my mother has all of her books! I will have to ask her to borrow them! Do you read Simple Abundance? Another great book for inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI with you on enjoying organization. If things around me are chaotic in a physical sense, I am literally feeling mentally chaotic. I become a reflection of my home, so I must be careful to make sure it is heading in the direction I personally want to go.
ReplyDeleteLana
I used to just stroll into our local library and ask to find the book I " needed" to read. It always amazed me that one would almost fall off the shelves into my hands JUST when I needed to read what was hidden between it's covers.Magical
ReplyDeletei love that you brought that sweet geranium indoors to overwinter and lift spirits come january. it's powerful and full of light, that pop of lovely fuschia red. i think i may try that next year. at the old home i kept all of my geraniums over winter in our unheated laundry room, and faithfully cut them back in february. it was always such a miracle to see the same plants barely alive in winter spring back to jubilant and vigorous life in march and then begin to bloom in june. they would go in my planter boxes along my deck railing, dotted with heliotrope and other annuals. i loved collecting different ones and adding to them. i left them behind, the few that had survived a winter/spring season of neglect when i was tending little boys instead ;)
ReplyDeleteand i love your blackboard, it looks like you're in a lovely, funky eatery!
hope you're keeping well...
~erin
Hi, just ran across your blog love it :)
ReplyDeleteKim