“Whether you think you can or can’t, you are right.” –Henry Ford

Each of us has the task of writing our own life story. From the minute we are born, we are shaped by our surroundings and those that love us – and even those that don’t. Some people quickly learn that life is as pliable as clay and begin to mold and shape their life into the perfect rendition of whom and what they want to be. For others, it becomes a struggle to overcome the labels and survive the negativity swirling around them. Admittedly, it took me a long time to learn that I have the right to eliminate those negative forces around me and concentrate on the good. Once I learned that, my life smoothed out and it became much easier to be happy and enjoy the truly great blessings in my life. I hope that my girls will learn this lesson sooner than I did. My greatest wish for them is to be happy and successful.





Many years ago, a great friend gave me a book titled “10,000 Things to Be Happy About.” It was a little book filled with lists of things that made the author happy. I must’ve read through that book a dozen times! I even highlighted the items that also made me happy – when I was finished, more than half of the book was filled with pink and yellow highlighter… And that made me happy! Reading that book helped me realize that there are others in this world who enjoy the simple things in life as much as I do. Today, in honor of all the things that make me happy, and in writing my own life story, I decided to post a list of some of the things that make me happy. And maybe, just maybe… some of these things make you happy too.

*My beautiful family
*The smell of rain
*The sound of a baby laughing
*Snuggling
*Campfires
*Being silly with my girls
*Watching movies in bed
*Long phone calls about nothing
*The Internet
*Gardens
*Summer evenings
*Multi-colored, almond scented soap in the carwash
*Four-wheeling
*Grandparents
*Cute husband wearing his hat backwards
*flip-flops
*Hawaii
*Ted’s Bakery
*A freshly made bed
*Laughing until my sides hurt
*Blogging
*Books that I can’t put down
*Favorite books that I can read again and again
*Dragonflies
*Tomato plants
*Spontaneous trips
*Boating
*Bare feet buried in cool sand
*Receiving flowers
*Family BBQs
*Memories of Boston
*Words invented by us (Yuffa, muches, smoochas, jammify!)
*Playing Apples to Apples
*Singing in the car
*Updating my IPOD

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” — Harold Whitman