What makes you Happy?

I thought I'd take a couple minutes to think about things that really make me happy.  A few things came to mind immediately.  It was funny, but they were all birds.  It makes me happy to see goldfinches on my bird feeder.  It makes me happy to see hummingbirds flitting around my flowers and feeder.  It makes me happy to see a bluebird sitting on the basketball backboard in the morning.  It makes me happy to see a heron in the pond in my back yard.  Such simple things and they make me smile. 

It makes me happy to accomplish a task I've been planning to do and to do it when I planned to do it.  *sigh*  Like making tomato sauce on Sunday from all the tomatoes I froze over the summer months.  It makes me happy to floss my teeth at night before I go to bed.  It means I'm not so exhausted I'm unable to properly care for myself.

It makes me happy to know my husband is pleased with me.  To know I've helped him in some way.  It makes me happy to watch my husband laugh at something that just tickles him.  It makes me happy to see my son happy.  I love seeing my son laugh.

It's funny, if you would have asked me years ago what I thought would make me happy I think the answers would have been quite different.  I think the answers would have involved trips or gifts or outings, but now the things that make me happy are much simpler and smaller.  I'm glad they've become simpler and smaller.  I'm glad because they are easier to attain.  My happiness comes much more often now.  I can find it in my kitchen or outside my window.  I don't have to look very far to find happiness.

If you have a minute, please tell me what makes you

See the Light

Red light!  Stop!
Halt all action on the street.
99% are taking over.
Take my picture.  Instagram.
I'm a tweeting bird on the wireless.
Greed, lies, it's not fair.
Arrest me!
Where's my trophy?  I got a C.  
Good enough. 72% is passing.  I got me a degree
In theater. I deserve the best.
What more does it take to pay the rent?

Yellow light!  Caution!
Slow down anonymous rhetoric and think.
You bought the dream.  You signed the form.
Pay the piper, pay the debt.  With interest.
You're on your knees in protest now.
When did you ever turn and bow?
To God
Blame the man.  Don't look down
At your iPhone, flat screen, data flow
On mom's plan.  She owes me
Doesn't she?  I didn't ask to be born.

Green light! Go!
Get a job.  Raise your family.
Stay with the wife you chose.
It's all grass, everywhere, none is better anywhere.
You don't need more than you have.
Be content and be generous
To all.
What goes around will come around.
You aren't entitled to the good life.
Don't believe the lies.  Repent your sin.
Return to truth.  The real truth, not yours.

Procrastination

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. ~ William James

True this.

I've got a few thing hanging over my head lately.  They are, without a doubt, exhausting me.  I'm not tired from doing, but I'm tired of thinking I SHOULD be doing them.  I have a list.  Maybe if I write this list and share it with all of you, I will start accomplishing SOMETHING.

But, before I write the list, I want to talk a bit about procrastination.  I want to talk about good procrastination and bad procrastination.  I've learned there are three types of procrastination.  Depending on what you do instead of working on something, you:

1. do nothing
2. work on something less important
3. work on something more important

I will suggest the type 3 individual is doing good procrastination.  He is putting off the small stuff to take care of the big stuff.  I'm going to suggest many moms fall into being the type 3 procrastinators.  I believe being actively involved with your children is a "big stuff" project, as opposed to dusting the bookshelf.  However, watching Ellen instead of being actively involved with your children or dusting is a type 1 or bad procrastination.
 
This is certainly the "reader's digest" condensed version of this theory, but I hope you are getting my drift.  Some of the small stuff things, like mowing the lawn, filing your taxes, grocery shopping, and the like, will eventually become big stuff problems if avoided long enough.  So even though you may have big stuff in your lives, like raising children, running a business, finishing your dissertation, writing the next great American novel, you eventually have to deal with some of the small stuff before they become big problems.

And this is where I find myself.  Lately I've been dealing with the big problem of my broken house and destroyed landscaping.  I've been hoping the roofer, we have ALREADY hired, will start replacing our roof.  I thought when this finally began my paralysis on doing other jobs, *read small stuff*, would end.  But, no roofing work has begun.  No repairs on the house are underway.  Now the small stuff is starting to build up and weigh heavily on my mind.  My procrastination must end.  I can no longer use the excuse of fixing my house to keep me from doing the small stuff.  So, back to the concept of writing down my list.

• Send in my winter CSA contract and check
• Iron all the clothes I have piled on the chair in my bedroom
• Fill out the tax forms for donations to Vintage Value
• Send church the letter telling them we have moved on to a different church
• Pull weeds and pull overgrown annuals out of my flower beds
• Wash all the mildew off the front door of my house
• Call the rancher and order my lamb
• Work with my son to sort through stuff from his room
• Go for a walk every now and then *read start exercising*

Wish me luck.  :)  Oh, while I was thinking about getting some of these things done, I rewrote Carly Simon's Anticipation to fit my post today.  If I felt ambitious I would have sung it and made a YouTube.  Maybe I'll do that someday...  When I find some time.

I don’t ever finish all the chores I have to do

But I think about them all the day

And I wonder if I'm really going to do them now

Or just wait ‘til after what Ellen has to say.

Procrastination, Procrastination

It’s making me late

It’s keeping you waiting

And I tell you how easy it is to put things off

And how right it feels to nothing at all.

But I rehashed the things I have to do last night

Then started thinking about how to avoid this work.

Procrastination, Procrastination

It’s making me late

It’s keeping you waiting

And tomorrow we might not have clean clothes

I'm no prophet, but I know we will need food

So I'll try to get out to the grocery store

I'll get to it, 'cause I'll get it done someday.

I'll get it done someday.

I'll get to it, 'cause I'll get it done someday.

I'll get it done someday.

I'll get it done someday.

I'll get it done someday.

I'll get it done someday.

  I'll get it done someday.  

 

 

I guess I should get working on that list now.  :)

I really do have a sense of humor

I know I've mentioned my Myers Briggs type is ISTJ.  I realize not everyone is quite as fascinated with personality typing as I am, but it's my blog, so there you are.  My point today is about my sense of humor.  An ISTJ's sense of humor is often described as "offbeat."  It's also been described as sarcastic humor.  My sense of humor has been described as witty and dry.  Finally, I'm fairly quick on the uptake and can come up with a clever come-back at a moments notice.  There are some types out there that just don't appreciate this type of humor.

Here are a few of the things I find funny.  I found this on fb.

I think this was the wrong story for him to cover.

I love dark comedies.  Fargo, Thank you for Smoking, Bad Santa, and the best EVER Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Was I born with this sense of humor or did I develop it?  One time a lady told me the things I say just make her jaw drop.  I guess that means she didn't think I was funny.  :(  Too bad for her.

When in college I had an anatomy class with a cadaver.  There was a living teacher and other living students in the class, but there were also eight cadaver.  I was always respectful, but there is a certain level of humor one must have when dealing with the dead.  And, I had that sense of humor needed for dealing with it. 

Finally, this blog is HILARIOUS.  I wish I was a clever enough writer to comment on it.

If you've never seen Dr. Strangelove, quick, open your Netflix streaming and ENJOY!!

Please feel free to send your most offbeat humor my way.  I LOVE it.

Steve Jobs, the best we had

Just about every evening I watch Mad Money with Jim Cramer.  Last night Jim gave a moving tribute to Steve Jobs.  Of all the coverage I've seen or heard since Mr. Jobs passed away, this was, by far, the best.

Jim Cramer paid homage to Steve Jobs, a man he called uniquely American and "the best we had."

Cramer said it's hard to capture the importance of the iconic founder and former CEO of Apple.  Ford, Walton, Edison, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Steve Jobs left the whole pantheon in the dust.  While legends like Henry Ford revolutionized transportation and Sam Walton provided affordable clothing for all, Jobs had the power to transcend them all by making machines that made the impossible possible.  His Apple Stores have the greatest sales per square foot of anyone.  Apple's devices are not only innovative, but look cool and sleek.  Jobs seemed to know what the consumer would need 5 years ahead of time, and was one of the greatest CEOs in history.

Cramer said machines we never knew we needed turned out to be necessities, and it's hard to remember the time before computing was made easy for the masses.  He made machines that brought the democratization of thought to to all.  Just as inventions like the wheel, the pulley, the screw, the incline plane, and the lever were groundbreaking, we take them for granted now, like the iPod, iPhone and the iPad, but they were all invented once, too. Can you imagine if just one man invented all of them?  "He had vision. He had brilliance. He was otherworldly."

Then there's Jobs' $350 billion worth of wealth creation under his tenure.  This creation of wealth bought a lot of retirements and college tuitions and vacations, not to mention countless meals on the table.  Jobs was able to see four and five years ahead, to see around corners, and worked hard every day, never turning to Washington for help or money.

Cramer said Jobs was like Beethoven or Mozart and we simply may not be smart enough to truly understand his legacy.  In an era when Americans have a lot to not be proud of, Jobs showed us what we are capable of and provided us the tools to get there.

"It's Apple against the world.  And the world doesn't stand a chance."

Please take a moment to listen to this wonderful tribute in it's entirety.  It's worth your time.