Joyful Simplicities

Several years ago, I decided I was going to write a weekly post here titled “Joyful Simplicities.” I did a few times, but then I fizzled out for some reason. I went back through my posts to see when and why I started the Joyful Simplicities posts, and I was surprised to see that my first one was 5 years ago, in the winter of 2012.

Wow, five years ago. Time sure does fly slowly by! I wrote my first Joyful Simplicities posts before the boys joined the Navy, if that puts it in perspective.

So much has happened in those five years; so many twists and turns and wind-y paths I never envisioned for my life. 

I started writing this blog to help me keep a positive perspective during what was a challenging time of my life, and when I look back through my old posts, I can see that for the most part, I have kept my writings here to positive things. When I first began, I made a vow to myself that during the very times I was feeling the most negative or down in the dumps and so not in the mood to don my Miss Susie Sunshine hat would be the times I most needed to make myself come here to write. There have been times where something happened that gave me the kick in the ass I needed to turn my thinking around and that drew me to write something here.

This is one of them.

The twists and turns my life has taken the past couple of years have not been easy to deal with, but I have done my best to keep my chin and spirits up. I am not perfect, and I fail at that task. I fail quite often. I do find myself wallowing in self pity and anger and "what if" moments way more than I want to. I wallow, then I hate myself for wallowing. I try to put on my Miss Susie Sunshine hat, but it is battered and torn, and sometimes, I think I need to just pitch it into the trash bin and forget I ever even HAD a Miss Susie Sunshine hat.

But,in the past few months, I have had so many “life is too short” moments happen, like the drowning death of Lauren’s roommate’s smart and amazing brother.  Or the car accident that recently took the life of an old friend of mine. Or the sudden unexplained death of my sister’s best friend’s sister, who was my age.

All of these things and more have been a proverbial kick in my ass/slap in my face.

Life. Is. Too. Short.

Too. DAMN. Short.

All of these things, and other things that I just don’t have the mental energy to write about, have made me want to/forced me to think about life’s crazy twists and turns in a new way. Life is always going to be filled with sorrow and heartache. It just is. But, it is also filled with joy. The joy may be hard to recognize amongst the heartache, but it is there, and I often found it is there in simple things that I may brush off and not even think about.

Soo…on that preachy note..I am going to stop preaching and just share a few joyful simplicities from my own life lately. I have been clinging to them for dear life.

~A sweet thank you note from a friend (that came by real mail, in my M.A.I.L.B.O.X!!! That does not happen often; mostly, every piece of mail I get each day goes straight from the mailbox to the trash can. (Except for the  bills). That handwritten note from one of my PLIDA colleagues truly made my day. That little card went straight into my warm fuzzy file.

~My house is very gradually coming back together. It is still not where I want it to be, and it has a long way to go until it is where I want it to be, but it is starting to be restored to the coziness that I love. AND, I finally have a hole-free ceiling in my kitchen! It looks a mess because Tony hasn’t finished it, but the hole that has been in my kitchen ceiling for close to a year is now gone. I kind of want to throw it a going away/good riddance party.

Tony finally put the trim up around the kitchen door, too. I have lots of repair and painting work to do after both of his fix-it projects.

I have also been (finally!!) hanging some things on the walls. 

It has been important to me to get my dining room whipped into shape since I see it as soon as I walk in my front door, and it is also in the process of slowly “getting there.” A few weeks ago, I purchased some new lamps for the buffet, and I love them. I especially love the shades. They look and feel like silk, but they aren’t. (They were pretty inexpensive at Gordman’s.) What I love most about them though is the color. I have taken a gazillion pictures, and I can’t seem to capture the right color; they are a bluish gray that is so pretty.

 I am in the process of painting the old hardware for the china cabinet and buffet. I bought some new round knobs at Hobby Lobby, and they look just perfect against the gray.

~Both of my girlies coming home for weekends. There haven’t been many weekends since they went back to school after Christmas break that one or both of them haven’t been home. This is a bittersweet joyful simplicity because the reasons they have both been home are due to some struggles, and they just want to be home. It warms my heart to know that when they have a crisis they want to come home, it really does. They come for hugs and spaghetti and chicken soup and the comforts of home. While it really does indeed warm my heart, I wish they weren’t struggling so. When they come, I let them sleep until noon and I fill their bellies. I make their favorite meals, I bake them cookies and when they leave, I hug them tightly, kiss their cheeks, tell them I love them because that is all I can do. It seems simple, and to them, it probably is, which is just how I want it to be. I want to make everything easy for them, but I can’t. All I can do is welcome them with open arms (and an open refrigerator!) when they need to be here and feel grateful they know this is their soft place to land when they need it.  

~My plan for losing weight is showing success—I have lost 10 pounds so far! Oh my stars, that makes me so, so happy. I have been unbelievably motivated, more motivated than I ever have been to lose weight, and I am thrilled and giddy that what I am doing is working. Oh, but I can’t tell you how much I would love to have a giant plate of spaghetti with a side of drowning-in-butter fluffy mashed potatoes and another side of gooey cheesy deep dish pizza. The thing is, I am eating quite well—lots of veggies, very low carb—and I am not counting calories. I am never hungry. But oh, potatoes, let me count the ways I miss thee!

~I became a volunteer for a wonderful organization called Bridget’s Cradles. BC’s provides beautiful crocheted little bassinets for babies that are born still in the second trimester. I love to crochet, and I run out of things to make, so this will provide a meaningful purpose to my crocheting. My first goal is to create 17 sets (each set includes a cradle, small blanket and prayer square) by June--5 in memory of Declan, 15 in memory of Hannah, and 1 for sweet Caroline. I have finished 1 set, that I made in memory of Caroline yesterday, on her 4 week birthday. I love how it all turned out, and I am excited to make more.

~The end of a really amazing Share training. It always seems that just when I am at the end of my rope and totally hating my job, something happens that fills my empty cup right back up.

~A stack of books waiting for me to read them. One was loaned from a coworker, one was purchased super cheaply at my favorite antique mall, and I ordered the other two from Amazon. I am anxiously waiting for the time to curl up in my comfy chair and read.

So that list ended up longer than I thought it would be. That is a very good thing, huh?

I won’t promise I will keep up with regular Joyful  Simplicity posts, because as soon as I say, “Oh, this will be a weekly thing,” I will yet again FAIL. But, I will promise to keep putting on that battered and beaten Miss Susie Sunshine hat and plug and plod away at always trying to look at the joyful side of life, no matter what else is happening in my world.