Sunday Serenity 2-14-2010

You learn to like someone when you find out what makes them laugh,
but you can never truly love someone until you find out what makes them cry.
~Author Unknown

Happy is Me!

My blogging buddy Kelly, over at My Voice, My View, tagged me and wants to know about ten things that make me happy. I teased her that my list will probably look a lot like her list, since we seem so much alike at times. I am pretty easy to make happy, as long as you don’t ask me to move!

Here’s my happy list!


1.Answering questions for my son. As you can probably tell by my Ten Zen feature on my sidebar, he asks lots and lots of questions. I’m kept busy by Googling, searching in textbooks, and flipping through the card catalog in my own brain. Here’s a gem he came up with yesterday: “Mom, would it be considered lucky if you were being attacked by the Nazis in Germany and they shot you in the head at the exact same time that you had your mouth wide open so the bullet just went in through one cheek and came out the other?”
Yeah, lucky, dude.


2. When Computer Geek and I say the same thing at the same time. And it’s really obscure. Then we nod our heads and say, “Yup, we’ve still got it.”

3. Grown up girls who make me proud. Both of them have good jobs and have developed a good sense of ethics and love for their fellow man. They are kind. That means more to me than any other accomplishment.

4. Reading. I’ve loved to read ever since my mom sat me on her lap and read the newspaper to me, and solicited my help on the daily crossword. I feel incomplete when I’m not reading something and usually I have more than one book going at a time, although some of them are children’s books, given my teaching position. Currently reading:
The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Bone Warriors by Bron Bahlmann
Clutter be Gone by Don Aslett
Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams
Prophecies and Promises by Bruce Porter and Rod Meldrum
Mosaic of Thought by Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmermann

5. Happy songs. Songs that make me want to dance. I don’t usually like a certain group or genre; my likes are based more on how well a song can get my feet moving. And speaking of feet moving, and since Billie Jean is one of the greatest feet movers of all time, go here for the laugh of the day: Billie Jean Literal Version.

6. Students. I love my students. I’ll just give two examples so that you can love them too!

Female Student to me: I was so happy yesterday because I read something and they referred to Phillip Nolan, and I knew who he was because of you. [All teachers live for moments like those.]


Here’s another:

Male Student: After we are done reading Sea of Monsters, can we watch The Odyssey?

Female Student: What’s the Odyssey?

Me: [explained about The Iliad and The Odyssey.] Another tidbit, did you know that Homer was known as the Blind Poet?

Male Student 2: Then how did he write?

Female Student 2: Duh. Once you know where the keys are, it’s easy.

Me: Um, the keyboard was invented slightly after Homer’s time.

Female Student 2: No seriously. My mom said they had typewriters even when she was little.
[Teachers also live for moments like these.]

7. Beautifully landscaped yards, with stone pathways, flowers, benches, overhanging trees and maybe a bubbly pond or two. A tree house is a plus.

8. Coincidences. Like the time my daughter was in NYC and was afraid to set her dinner tray outside her hotel door. We were IM’ing back and forth and I wrote “Go set it outside the door, and if you’re not back in 30 seconds, I’ll call the police,” at the same time that she wrote to me, “I’ll go set it outside the door. If I’m not back in 30 seconds, call the police.” We got each other’s messages at the same time.

9. Sandy beaches. Cold ones, warm ones, doesn’t matter.

10. Grandchildren. Ones that belong to me and ones that I’ve adopted.




Part of the tag involves me giving the award to some other bloggers. Here are some of my new favorites and a few of my old favorites.

Jessa’s Sketchbook for some whimsical art. I love going through page after page of her sketches. Very cute!

Naqvee at When Almighty Desires. Be sure to read her romantic anniversary story.

Daisy at Answer Starts with You. A good site for deep thoughts, some poetry and a good dash of humor.

Cocoa at Chocolate on my Cranium for a delectable site of daily living and craftiness. She’s my Martha.

Room Mom 101 for lots of cool Valentine ideas.

Controlling my Chaos. The queen of organization. No lie. And she’s extremely funny. What’s not to love?


All new winners, please pick up your award at the top of this page!