positive things meme

As is going around LJ and DW, I'm going to try to post about good things in my life, but I want to give it a bit of a twist.

I'm going to post about moments of happiness, and why these things made me happy. I'm going to talk about different flavors of happiness and how happiness and the things that make me happy enrich my life.

1) This morning I needed to take the bus to work. It's a three-bus trip. I didn't make the first bus I needed, so I walked to the second bus -- about a 30 min brisk walk. It was very pleasant. The sky was a thin, clear blue and the air was tangy and brisk. I felt very present, very in my skin; I felt my muscles as they worked, my joints and even the small bones in my feet, all communicating and cooperating well and healthily. As a bonus, two people along the walk smiled and wished me a good morning.

2) I took my client to the pool today. We do this a lot -- three or four times a week. About midway in our time at the pool, I noticed, really noticed, how content my client was as he swam about. It gave me a feeling of fulfillness, that I was a part of making him so happy.

3) When I came home, my grandson Trentyn lit up. "Grandma! You're home!" He ran at me and tackled my thighs, hugging me tight. "I love you!" He has such joyfulness in him. I'm suddenly reminded of Catcher in the Rye when Holden is talking about his little sister and there's such love in it. I don't know why that suddenly comes to mind; perhaps because I get so frustrated with Trentyn, but I love him so much. It's complicated. But on his end, it's not. He just loves and his joy at seeing me washed over me, wondrous.

taking care of business

I have the next two days off, and a ton of things to do. This will be one of those boring "to do" posts.

-- I'm buying some sand this week for sandboxes for the kids. I've built a huge sandbox out back (8ftX16ft or about 2.5m/5m) and I'm digging out half of my front yard for another one. That sounds like a lot, but my front yard is tiny, and the play place in the front will be smaller than the one in back. I'll be buying about 2.5 cubic yards of Lake Michigan beach sand for about $200.

-- I'm going to put the garden to bed, or most of it. It's been cold and rainy for the last week, and the only thing loving this weather is the cabbage and broccoli (I have two plants that survived the kids). The tomatoes were done weeks ago from the blight, and the quinoa is looking very sad in the rain. And I have one bed to dig that I never got done last spring.

-- I also want to dig out space at the back of the house for next year's tomatoes. I'm going to dig a long, thin bed with space for some 10-15 plants. Because it'll be in back and keeping in mind that the kids dug up all of my broccoli and crushed my rhubarb back there this summer, I'll have to invest in some decent fencing. Hmm... if I make a fence with farmer's cloth, I can run straight sticks through the fence to act as supports for the tomatoes, and I won't have to buy any tomato cages.

-- I'm going to bubble wrap some of my windows for extra insulation this winter. The kids have completely wrecked the mini blinds in the living room; I'm going to take those down, install the bubble wrap and put up curtains. That'll cost about another $100 because I can't find four panels of the same pattern of used curtains anywhere. I'm hoping that I can get the bubble wrap from a department or furniture store.

Sandbox!

Look! I have minions!






I took all the perennial from the side that is now the sandbox and planted them in the other bed. That bed should look lovely next spring, and I'll put a nicer fence around it -- needed so that the kids and neighbor kids don't trample my plants.

Just some cleanup to do and it's ready for the sand.


All the dirt is piled under the tree that's at the streetside. I'm going to plant that with vinca (periwinkle). Now for the back yard. Then tomorrow I can focus on the garden beds across the street.