Ha ha ha ha, Ha ha ha ha, Ha ha ---

I wasn't looking forward to today all that much, despite it being my day off.  I have a couple of non-day off activities to accomplish so I decided to add to that unpleasantness and have my own little pity party.

Thankfully, I found this little quiz in my rss feed today ... it cheered me right up.  Nothing like a little Princess Bride in the morning to raise the spirits a bit.

BTW -- I got an 80%. One of the best scores I have gotten on these "difficult" mental_floss quizzes.

Hah.

The last two questions killed my 4.0.  (Also the actor in question #1's video -- amazing job!).

5 enjoyable things I did today

1. Slept in (oh so enjoyable!)
   
   
2. Visited with my Grammy
   
   
3. Made scones
   
   
4. Froze zucchini (which you wouldn't think would be enjoyable but that's because you didn't know I used my mom's food processor to grate up the zucchini before I bagged and froze it-- very cool, I gotta get me one of those!)
   
   
5. Had tea and scones with my Mom and Grammy

It was a smiley kind of day!

Once upon a time . . .

I love storytime at the library! I think all adults should attend a storytime -- whether they have kids or not.

This morning I was working the circulation desk during the story hour and I laughed and smiled the whole time.

The kids really got into some of the stories -- they laughed and smiled a lot!

I think that a lot of people -- once they consider themselves adults -- discount children's or young adult books. Personally some of my all-time favorites would not be considered 'adult' books. I also like the juvenile non-fiction better than some of the adult non-fiction books. They are easy to understand and have lots of pictures!

For my bookspot this month (last Friday of the month) I am going to focus on children's books . . . I'm excited.

In the meantime, I think I will do a little reading . . .

I'm walking

I have been walking a lot the last couple days. Which is good . . . for both my body and my mind. Obviously, it is good to get up and around. It is also is relaxing.

Tonight walking home from work was the best part of my day.

I am trying to get in as much walking as I can -- hopefully it will become a habit.

A walking habit.

On the right foot

Well, I had a pleasant weekend! It was busy too! Friday I did dinner and movies at a friends house. Saturday I had to work for a few hours but then a friend and I visited with friend of ours who was in the area for the weekend.

That was great -- we got to catch up on each other's lives and visit with her kids!

Yesterday, of course, was Mother's Day and I had dinner with Mom & Dad after church.

I even started out the week right getting up at a early enough to get some yard work done this morning before going to work and now I'm going home to mow my lawn.

I hope I can keep my momentum up for the rest of the week!

Rejoice

Rejoice always. I Thessalonians 5:16

One of my favorite scripture passages to read and meditate on is Philippians.

The book of Philippians was written by the apostle Paul to the believers in Philippi (a city in Macedonia – now ?) around A.D. 60. During this time Paul was far away from his friends in Rome awaiting trial. He was under house arrest, kept imprisoned by military guards.

Knowing this, I find it amazing that Paul could speak of his joy or rejoicing at least 16 times throughout this letter.

It forces me to question how my heart would respond in a similar situation:

• Would I dwell on the joy in my life in the midst of frustration, disappointment, and unforeseeable trials?

• Or would I wallow in my own self pity?

• Would my focus be on Christ my Savior, my Friend?

• Or would I focus on myself?

• Would I “Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I will say, rejoice!”? Philippians 4:4

Daily pleasures and fuzzy photography

The rhythms of life are comforting. They are stability in an unstable world. I can count on a new family moving into the one of the apartments next door at least every six months. I can always count on my neighbor mowing his lawn a day before I do. (Except this week he had to wait a day because of rain. This is a different kind of joy altogether -- finally I caught up to him in yard work!)

One of my most pleasurable 'rhythms' is an older gentleman walking his dog. It never fails - he walks his dog everyday usually around 4pm. Winter, summer, with threat of rain or during beautiful weather. Recently, I noticed a slight alteration. An added pet.

At first, I thought it was just a coincidence but every day the gentleman and his dog walked by my house . . . with cat trailing after. ( Sorry if the picture is a little fuzzy -- blame the photograper!)

This is one of my daily pleasures. It always brings a smile to my face!

Contented?

So much emphasis, these days, is on happiness. Do it if it makes you happy. Are you happy with it? I'm not happy so I need to change something so I am happy.

I believe this is the wrong way to look at things. There is no way that everyone will be happy all the time. There is no way you or I will be happy all the time. Look at kids. They may not happy because they want that candy bar right now and will let you know it in the middle of the grocery store. Loudly. Yet just because they get that candy bar does not mean it is good for them physically, emotionally, etc. They may regurgitate that candy bar all over the back seat on the way home. Or realize that, yes, I can control my parents by embarrassing them with loud tantrums in the grocery store.

Same with our lives, just because we fix something because we aren't happy at the moment doesn't mean we are making the best decisions.

Ah, enough of that now. Just thought I would throw out a little extra since I missed Friday's posting. I will probably talk about this more as I try to become more contented.

Contentment seems the better thing to strive for. Harder, maybe. Not the norm, definately. But worth it.

Searching for a way to make what we have (marriage, career, family, spiritual life) is not always easy. We have to confront some issues or people that we (and by we, I mean I) have been putting off. Possibly because we (I) really hate confrontation, conflict, contention, etc.

Contentment is realizing what we have now is worth it. Worth the effort, worth a little unpleasantness, it takes to enjoy what we have to the fullest.

Ah, enough of that now. I will probably share some more in my effort to become more contented. But I think I have more than made up for Friday's missed post.