200 Harmony-Inducing Happy Things

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Guess what?  WordPress Dude, in all his obsessive math calculating, number crunching happiness has alerted me right there on the WP dashboard that this is my 200th post. Wow! I’m totally impressed with myself at the moment, which will of course pass very quickly. My 100th post came and went without nearly the fanfare of President Obama’s first 100, but it did relate somewhat, where relate = it was about another president. Post 100 was day 10 in my 12 days of Thanksgiving 2008 series highlighting thoughts about President Lincoln’s first Thanksgiving proclamation. I shared 12 lessons of thanksgiving Abe seemed to “get.” The first was this:

“Learning to recognize bounty is important.”

Yep, that’s still true and still shamefully difficult at times. But, in celebration of my 200th post and as another step on the trek to Harmony 2009, I’m taking up the challenge from my friend at SisterWisdom to make a happy list. Mine is a list of 200 Harmony Inducing Happy Things. Happy things, where things = people, places and well, things that add harmony to my spirit just by virtue of their existence and proximity to me. Happy things can make even the most disharmonious circumstance slip more closely into tune. Misplaced flats and sharps (for my music lovers) don’t stand a chance when happy things are around. [If it's been 37 days or so since my last post, you'll know that 200 was a bit ambitious and can collectively sigh about poor Junkie who can't even think of 200 happy things. But, somehow I don't think that'll be a problem. -- And, sure enough, it wasn't.]

200 Harmony-Inducing Happy Things

1. Hub

2. Little Drummer Boy

3. Squiggle

4. and Baby Girl (in the order of their unwrapping)

5. being inside on a rainy day

6. the smell of gardenia

7. “spit kisses” that you can keep all day

8. laptops

9. a fairly clean and sanitized episode of Murder She Wrote

10. wildflowers picked and arranged for Mother’s Day

11. getting to cook a new dish for my family

12. bedtime stories

13. a tall glass of sweetened iced tea

14. “glass” glasses, not plastic

15. choosing from the cream, yellow, green or cobalt blue plates depending on my mood

16. green striped placemats @ $4 a piece — yep, still harping on those.

17. a drive down the Natchez Traze when dogwoods and redbuds are in full bloom

18. the perfect amount of sun and shade to make red winged begonias flourish on my front stoop

19. an unexpected little boy hug

20. an unexpected big boy hug

21. leftovers

22. peaches in season

23. whole wheat pasta

24. Claire Burke original scent votive candles

25. a glimpse at my grandmother’s handwriting on the letters she sent me at college

More, more and more after the jump! Be happy with me…

26. cottage mysteries

27. going to the library to choose books and movies

28. warm donuts

29. playing “airplane” on the front porch swing

30. Busy Bee farm

31. playing “I Spy” at the dinner table

32. day-debriefing with Hub

33. a full tank of gas

34. giving Baby Girl a bath

35. tiny spring dresses

36. bendy straws

37. finding a place for everything

38. the smell of freshly dried clothes

39. the treehouse view outside my upstairs office

40. Bee Gees

41. hanging out with my Mom

42. sleeping with the ceiling fan on

43. a sense of accomplishment

44. the quiet of 10:30pm

45. sleeping in

46. Reeses cups

47. unlined journal pages

48. cloth napkins

49. family photos

50. using a grill pan

51. bright raincoats on a rainy day

52. a dynamic page layout

53. reading books and articles with tips — just the speed for my time and brain capacity

54. the Wal-Mart scrapbooking aisle

55. singing

56. white socks

57. clean windows

58. watching Squig color with markers

59. Squig “helping” me unload the dishwasher

60. Little Drummer Boy’s enthusiasm at putting forks on the table

61. the sounds of two three boys wrestling

62. Doritoes with peanut butter

63. the nine-patches my grandmother made me to “use”, where use = throw on the ground if necessary

64. imagining the joy my grandmother would feel watching Baby Girl roll around and skooch and get tangled up in the nine-patch she gave me to “use”

65. the smell of Johnsons Baby Shampoo

66. blue hydrangeas

67. wireless internet

68. my red plaid umbrella

69. Little Drummer Boy’s stories

70. my engagement/wedding ring

71. Saturdays

72. dark chocolate

73. window shades

74. colorful pens and pencils

75. decorating magazines

76. laughing with just about anybody

77. crying with a select few

78. psalms

79. Robert Frost poems

80. google

81. the yellow and feathery twitter bird Little Drummer Boy made in his “Chicks and Salsa” unit

82. a warm bath

83. iced mocha with whipped cream and sprinkles

84. cleaning out a cabinet

85. Miss Belle, the perpetually happy beagle

86. lullabies

87. two boys sitting on the counter trying to stir…

88. my peppermint frosting recipe

89. watercolor paint

90. great typefaces

91. Hub’s ability to make sound effects

92. candlelight

93. lightning bugs

94. watching birds (and squirrels) at the backyard feeders

95. the Montgomery speedway (a.k.a. our hallway)

96. fresh pillowcases

97. playing piano

98. losing track of time

99. freshly cleaned hard wood floors

100. an unexpected lunch date with Hub

101. blog comments

102. a room without white noise

103. cool evenings

104. family dinners

105. hanging stuff on my “chandelier” to celebrate almost anything

106. the sound and smell of a crackling fire

107. October

108. John Denver songs

109. looking around to find everyone in the same room

110. warm cornbread with butter

111. playing outside with my boys

112. one-on-one time with each of my kids

113. “reading” design blogs

114. going places together as a family

115. the two running, very loud “Mommy”s I get when I walk into daycare at the end of the day

116. Friday lunches with the Queen

117. getting reacquainted with old friends on Facebook

118. meeting new friends on Twitter

119. well-turned phrases

120. banana popsicles

130. tertiary color schemes

131. yellow-green — the color of Kermit the Frog and those placemats (more harping)

132. reading children’s books and pondering the life lessons they offer

133. my favorite sheer rose, olive and burnt orange floral scarf

134. antiques, and using them

135. giving my children the toys my parents saved from my childhood

136. Christmas lights

137. non-plastic containers — baskets, buckets, bags, dishes with lids, etc

138. Pyrex designs

139. looking at old photos

140. getting my thoughts on paper

141. dancing around the house

142. dollar stores

143. getting my children happies there, and the smiles in response

144. Crabtree & Evelyn vanilla scented lotion

145. my votive candle stash to fit my mood

146. girly details on my clothes — stitching, beads, pins, buttons, ribbons

147. 100% cotton t-shirts

148. looking at mid-century advertising and illustrations

149. treating ordinary objects like art

150. afternoon naps

151. blooming plants on my kitchen table made from old floor boards

152. a shiny sink

153. my coffee table made from an old feed pallet

154. the freedom of knowing we can’t do any more damage to it than a few years in a barn already did

155. Jelly Bellies

156. scented soap

157. pretty dish towels, where pretty = bright colors and great patterns

158. hearing Baby Girl giggle

159. screen doors

160. Coke floats

161. brown Kraft paper

162. looking through my sketchbook turned hand-made wedding book

163. pink climbing roses

164. sitting still

165. finding inspiration in old sketchbooks and journals

166. the hint of dimples

167. kind words

168. an organized junkdrawer

169. grocery shopping for my family

170. a clean kitchen

171. pink lemonade pie

172. deciding not to do what I “should be doing”

173. the color explosion of Squiggle and Crayola washable markers — all over the paper, all over the counter, all over Squig, allover fun

174. lamps

175. living room pizza picnics with a movie

176. blow-pops

177. quickly obliging the “smile at me, Mommy”

178. writing without worrying about the need to read my hand-writing later

179. womenfolk who can play and sing — the Cranberries, Natalie Merchant, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Joni Mitchell, Allison Kraus

180. menfolk who can play and sing — Simon & Garfunkel, the Boss, Jon BonJovi, Dave Matthews, Chris Blake, R.E.M.

181. singing harmony with the radio

182. reading for “just a few more minutes”

183. disco

184. yoga pants

185. taking my gifts to a new place

186. days when you just barely need a long-sleeve

187. really, paper of any kind, see #161

188. 3″ heels in size 5

189. scanners

190. a freshly ironed shirt

191. “danglie” earrings

192. chapstick

193. blogging

194. Black-eyed Susans

195. being the kind of mom my Mom was to me

196. nightlights

197. finishing something I started

198. Sunday afternoon drives

199. real conversations

200. a day like today

Thank you, thank you for sticking around for the bicentennial. Now go and be shiny, happy people, people!

© Haley Montgomery