Spreading Joy

A Daily Treat for Myself!

When I treat myself, I love an extra hot Venti Cinnamon Dolce Latte (sugar free) from Starbucks or a Diet Coke and Reese Cup.  These simple little things bring me great joy and are truly a treat. 

Last year, I was looking for a journal (a treat for myself) and stumbled upon this cool desk calendar. 3,650 Things to be Happy About, by Barbara Ann Kipfer.  Being a lover of the million little things that bring joy to my day, I was intrigued. 

One was opened, so I began to flip through it.  10 items a day, everyday. How very cool! Giggling with excitement, I decide to treat myself to this wonderful little treasure.  2 months have passed and I must say, it has been one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever given myself.  I love tearing off the page, anxiously awaiting the next 10 things. 

I have not always agreed with some of them, but that is to be expected as everyone does not like the same things.  And then, there are the things that I have to “good search” to see what they are.  (Sorry Google, Good Searching makes sense, as they help out my little non profit.) I have learned something new from this calendar nearly every other day! For instance, did not know what a Yurt was.  Go on…Good Search it, if you need to. I did.

I decided to try and list 10 things a day for a week to see what I would come up with.  Some have to do with things that happened on that day – others, are just random things that popped into my head.  Here they are in no particular order:

Monday: Full moon hanging on a cloud, Gel Pens, soft Kleenex, board games, belly laughs, waking to a kiss, cool sunglasses, soft carpet, Atomic Fireballs, White out.

Tuesday: American Flag, rolling fog, cute note pads, making cotton candy, cloud shapes, Hot chocolate with marshmallows, Handwritten notes, roller coasters, forgiveness, Reese Cups with a Diet Coke

What is Wrong with this picture? It would be better if it were a BIG Cup Reese Cup!

Wednesday: Cute Socks, Chuck Norris Facts, Free Books, Puppies, Statue of Liberty, heart dangle earrings, unconditional love, hot soup, cute purses, lightening bugs

Thursday: Watching my children sleep, Anticipating Christmas morning, huge sliding boards, Ringling Brothers Circus, itouch, Animal cookies, listening to rain, Long lingering HUGS, Hope, Blue Roses

Friday: Little Debbie Cakes, homemade lemonade, reading poetry, Old books from the thrift store, Service Men & Women, Breakfast for dinner, Choices, PB&J with Glass of Milk, Disney Classics, hot peanut butter cookies out of the oven

Saturday: Toddlers that ask millions of questions, Being safe in God’s arms, Singing loudly in the car, Sitting sideways in overstuffed chairs, quotes, Falling asleep listening to the ocean lap against the shore, Watching my kids make the right decision, reading poetry, Policemen & Firefighters, Riding with all the windows down in the car

Sunday: Coconut Cake, Having the Bible ready available in hand or online, Universal Studios, Unsweetened Iced Tea, Monkeys on anything and everything, See sawing with a friend, Blowing Bubbles, Cute adorable socks, m&m’s, handmade bracelets

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.–Henry Ward Beecher

These are just a few things that make me happy.  What about you?  Can you list 10 things a day that make you happy, so that at the end of the year you’ll have your very own 3,650 things to be happy about?  What about listing 10 things a day that are simply happy things?  For example, spaghetti dinners do not make me happy, as I do not like any form of pasta.  But – being at the spaghetti dinner with smiling friends and getting warm hugs – now…that is happy stuff.  See what I mean?

If you blog, I challenge you to list 10 happy things a day, blog it and then link back here.  I’d love to read it as well as share it with others!

If you don’t blog, consider listing your 10 happy things a day for the week in the comments below.  It will be wonderful to see the things that make YOU happy!

Again, I ask – What makes you happy?

{{{HUGS}}}

Friday morning in January….the alarm goes off, ugghh…I groan. 4:30 already? Mercy.  I hit the clock, drag myself out of bed and start the day.  It’s Friday, I should be excited.  Few more hours and the weekend will be upon me, right? Wrong!  Normally the super silliness you see here is just me.  While I am and can be completely serious, I love laughing, smiling, cutting up and just loving each and every moment that I can. 

I’m not sure what is going on, but I feel anything but happy.  I start getting ready and as I normally do, spend time in prayer while getting ready.  Someone is on my heart that day, so I pray, specifically for them. Normally this would lift my spirits, but it doesn’t.  I head out the door to work. No music, no nothing, just feeling cranky.  I realize this and decide to keep my ickiness to myself.  

Just Keeping It Real!

 I got in my car and headed over to a near by Wal-Mart.  Trying to figure out what to get and for whom.  I knew that I needed to do something for someone – to get rid of the crankiness.  I check ubertwitter to send out a few tweets while I’m walking through Wal-Mart.  What I saw made me laugh so hard, out loud and in front of everyone.  Gene sent a reply that simply said:  

Completely made me Laugh Out Loud!

With that belly laugh, I feel the crankiness slowly start lifting. Laughter truly is good medicine!  I see the perfect thing; Little Debbie Cakes.  I LOVE unwrapping smiles and so will the people I give these delicious treats to. I purchase them and see a few more replies about my crankiness.  I respond thank you to Jarrell who said “Keep raising those arms & waving hands & praising God.” Then to Catie who said “Don’t be cranky!! Here’s a hug! *HUG* hope it makes you feel better :]” and trust me…it Did make me feel better.  More crankiness, slowly oozing away.  Then I respond to Angie and Katie who both sent more HUGS, knowing I ADORE hugs.  Lastly I reply to Barbara who said “Feel better lady joy!” and head over to Subway to get a sandwich and Peanutbutter cookies for lunch.  I smile and give every Subway worker a Little Debbie Valentine Brownie and wish them a wonderful day. I send out a tweet about what I had just done.  I smile.  I noticed more crankiness oozing away, “nice feeling” I think to myself.  I’m walking through the parking lot, pull 2 cakes out for my team and then proceed to give the others away.  ”I love spreading joy”, I happily think to myself. “Does a heart good!”

I get into my car and check ubertwitter to send out a few more thank you’s and WHO do I see?Why, it’s Little Debbie herself - Saying:

I LOVE unwrapping Smiles

At this point, I’m like a kid on Christmas morning!  “OH my gosh!  Is this real or is this a bot?” I’m giggling out loud to myself.  So I ask and they reply that sure enough, they are the real deal!  Wow! As real as rain!  Some how, knowing this and the fact that the person I had been praying for much of that morning had said that the day had started out difficult, but was getting better, simply just made my day.  Those few simple, yet extremely important things helped to get rid of the crankiness.  

Next to giving out Reese Cups, giving out Little Debbie Cakes is one of my favorite things to do.   They are delicious and very affordable, as well as always bring a smile!  I do love unwrapping a smile!  

The moral? Am I always spreading joy? No, just ask my kids or husband or for that matter my little sister, Angie.  Can there be an easy fix to it? It’s not always easy, but I’m telling you – from experience, I know that if you’ll FORCE yourself to focus on someone else for awhile, the crankiness will leave you.  It has no choice but to run for the hills!  There will be no room in your heart for the crankies.  The joy you get from giving, even something small, will NOT leave room for the crankiness in your heart.

Don’t believe me?  Next time you are cranky, spend approximately $3.00 on a couple boxes of Little Debbie Cakes and just give them out to random people with one of your amazing smiles.  Then, after you have given them all away, come over here and describe the joy that has just flooded your heart and pushed out the crankiness.

 I dare you!

I can’t wait to hear from you on what you do to get rid of the CRANKIES!

Sending {{HUGS}} of gret JOY!