2026 Happy Blog Challenge

 Some happy Tuesday things: Despite not being able to fall asleep Monday night I made it through my work day.  It was the last work day until after my trip to Pennsic.  Having very little sleep between work and packing, I fell asleep before finishing writing this blog.  Yay, sleep! Keziah and I went through more boxes looking for more of her garb.  I seem to be missing an outfit or two myself, but I know where most of it is.  After going through a bunch of things and packing as intentionally as I could, I feel like I'm about half to two-thirds packed.  Then I realize that is just my stuff into boxes, not the truck or trailer.  So I'm estimating about one-third packed.  Either way, I'm happy to have Wednesday off to finish packing and preparing.   I've always been fascinated with the paper type of insect nests but held more fear of the insect so stayed away.  As I aged, that fear has lessened.  My research, starting with Go...

June 22nd Here are some happy things for today: Yesterday and last night I got a fair amount of sleep. This morning from around 8-9 AM I got a section of the lawn mowed. The lawn mower mostly stayed on this time. Last time I tried to mow, it didn't want to stay going.   I mowed part of the lawn! My next task was going to the studio. Keziah and I have been filling the minivan with things that should be at the studio. I got about half of the boxes out and up both flights of stairs before I decided the rest could wait for later. Then I rested until my former protégé/deputy treasurer arrived and we worked on SCA treasurer stuff. Hopefully I am caught up now. Before bed I got to talk with TF for a short time. It is always good to talk with her. I had hoped to get to Texas for a short visit, but that probably won't happen. So phone calls it is! ☮ Finished listening to: Paladin's Hope , by T. Kingfisher.  Started listening to: Paladin's Faith , by T. Kingfisher.  ...

 June 14th Here are some happy things from today: One of the NY Times games that I sometimes play is called Letter Boxed .  I'm not going to try and explain it all right now.  However, the goal is to create words with the letters provided.  In this case it suggested trying to finish it in six words or less.  I finished it in two words.  I'm pleased with that result. One of the people in our household turned 17 today.  To prepare for the birthday gathering I tried doing more cleaning of and around the pool.  In the process I spotted a frog.  Another household member helped me to re-home the little guy to a tree.  That seemed appropriate since Google Lens identified it as a tree frog. There was also a lovely butterfly fluttering around.   There is purple cow vetch growing near the tree where we put the frog. Most of the rest of my day involved cleaning or relaxing.  I didn't attend the party for very long.  I'm trying t...

 June 13th Some happy Saturday things: One of the things I wanted to do was mow the lawn.  Very little was mowed.  The mower kept stalling.  Eventually I gave up.  However, it is a gas mower and I was able to pull the rope to start it.  We have a battery one that is still at the other house.  I'm happy I could start that gas one though, hopefully we will figure out the problem. Bel taught me some about the pool maintenance today.  We spent some time trying to clean it more.  I did a bunch of pool vacuuming.  It still doesn't look clean, but the water tests that Bel is using say it is clean enough.  Hopefully I'll remember what I was taught tomorrow.  Most of the day I feel like I spent trying not to melt.  My bedroom got to 89° F today.  Before I went to bed (where I promptly fell asleep before finishing this) the temperature was down some thankfully.   ☮ Continued listening to: Paladin's Hope , by T. Kingfi...

 June 11th Some happy things from today: Perhaps it was yesterday's realization of how little sleep I tend to get.  Perhaps it was sheer exhaustion.  Either way I was able to get just over eight hours of sleep even with getting up for nature's call more than once.  My back was sore and my eyes still burned, but I got more than eight hours of sleep! Concerning the interim safety position I applied for, the rumor is that they are down to three candidates and I am one of them. In the yard I noticed what Google Lens thinks is some kind of spiraea, perhaps Reeve's spiraea.  On the side of the driveway are some multiflora. Spiraea. Multiflora  ☮ Continued listening to: Paladin's Hope , by T. Kingfisher.  Continued to read: No Time Like the Past , by Jodi Taylor.  Thank you for being here and being part of my daily happy things. Stay safe!

 June 10th Happy Wednesday things: First... unhappy that I got very little sleep last night.  Google Health now has all of my information from FitBit.  There was no choice.  Anyhow, according the app, I have had one day of at least eight hours of sleep in the last week.  For the last year, I have 64 days with at least eight hours of sleep.  I'm sure I slept without my FitBit on occasion, but not much.  All that said, I almost fell asleep on my feet today.  My happy is that I made it through my entire shift.  It would have been easy to use some of my unpaid time to go home and sleep. At home, Bel was working on the pool.  Some of the household went swimming and into the pool to clean it better. More of the peonies have opened.  There are also some bush sized cinquefoils that are starting to bloom. Peonies.  Cinquefoil. ☮ Continued listening to: Paladin's Hope , by T. Kingfisher.  Continued to read: No Time Like the Past , b...

  May 22nd Some happy things from today: Last night I slept… for almost ten hours.  I did wake up in the wee hours of the morning for a short time.  I considered getting up and doing dishes and getting things done.  Instead, I fell back to sleep, thus achieving almost ten hours. The azalea flowers that I took a picture of earlier this week was from a well manicured bush. Most of them have opened and it is quite lovely. Azalea. Bel, Corvidae and I went out for breakfast this morning.  Well, it was my second breakfast and their first one.  It was also around noon.  😂  We went to the old house after and got some of the gardening supplies that were still there.  There is still much to do at the old house.  There is a cherry tree in the garden area that continues to live even though the trunk looks like it is half eaten by insects and critters.  I am amazed that it keeps holding on. Cherry Tree I went to Craft Night.  I would love...

 May seventh  Thursdays can be long.   Here are some happy things from today: It has been a week where sleep has not been easy.  I overslept and was able to get to work at 1:20 AM–right on time.  Usually I clock in a little earlier.  It was a good, busy, fast-paced shift.  My scheduled week is over.   After work I took a nap.  I slept hard for a short time before going out to run some errands with Corvidae.  It was a sunny day and that helped make the errands better.   After errands I managed to fall asleep for a little while again.  Slowly I woke myself up by finishing a movie and finding some crock pot recipes so I can make dinner sometime.  Somewhere in there it got late and I forgot to take pictures.  Then I fell asleep again.  One might think I was tired or something... ☮ Continued listening to: Paladin's Grace , by T. Kingfisher. Continued to read: No Time Like the Past , by Jodi Taylor. Than...

 March 10th Here are some happy things from Tuesday: Work went amazingly well.  The Problem Solve Area wasn't as busy as usual.  When we got a bunch of carts that were all delivered to us that should have gone somewhere else, the supervisors sent other people over to take care of them.  Then the Hazardous Materials Area looked like I had days worth of work to do but I got it all done.   After work they fed us burgers and fries from Wendy's.  Burgers aren't usually my favorite, but free food that I don't hate, I eat.  😋   When I got home I fell asleep.  That was not part of my plan, but a full stomach and exhaustion was all it took.  The weather is beautiful.  Temps are in the 70's and it is almost too warm in the sun.  Some windows are open and things just seem nicer.  For a little while I just sat on the steps outside.   I can see parts of the yard! A little brook cutting through the ice. ☮ Continued ...

 Happy things from day two of March: Something woke me in the middle of the night.  I don't know what but that something caused dreams of the basement flooding.  This in turn, inspired me to attempt a poem.  It was 3:00 in the morning and the writing needs work.  Still, that process felt good and made it easier to fall back asleep again.  Keziah, Bel, and I went out for breakfast.  We went to the Windmill Restaurant and we all got French toast.  They have the best French toast.  It was time for me to talk with them about selling my house.  After that, we had a good time.   Monday is the day I try to walk with friends.  None of them were able to meet me.  I considered walking in the woods near the house, but all my body wanted to do was fall asleep.  Instead, I watched part of a movie while on the treadmill.  It was a compromise I made with myself.   As a side note, I reached a 200 day streak on Wor...

 Thursday February 26th Once again I fell asleep before writing, oh well.  Here are some happy things from this Thursday: At work for the first part of the night I was tasked with the job of picking packages up from the conveyor belt and putting them onto the correct rack.  There is a little more to it, but that is the main part.  It involves walking back and forth a lot.  By the end of the entire shift I had over 20,000 steps.   While eating my after work meal, Kayden decided he wanted attention.   Since I was sitting on the couch to eat I should have expected this.  Since a warm cat on my lap benefitted me, I allowed him to curl up, but refused to give him any attention until I finished eating.  🤷🏼‍♀️  He seemed okay with this arrangement.   After I ate and gave him some attention he fell asleep.  I possibly drifted off a little myself.   His asleep position at one point was a little odd. ...

 Here are some happy things from Thursday: A few months ago I was informed that having vinyl gloves in the Problem Solve Area was a bad idea because there are chemicals that don't mix with vinyl.  Today there were some gloves that were a nitrile vinyl mix.  I asked the Safety person to remind me, first if it was vinyl to be avoided and second to remind me why.  The other implied question was does this material combo make a difference?  He asked to see the gloves and then we did science!  There was some acetone on site and we made a slightly controlled environment and he poured some acetone onto the glove.  It took a moment but the glove ripped easily and we deemed those gloves not safe for Problem Solve or Hazardous Materials.  Getting to be part of a science experiment at work made my little former homeschool teacher's heart sing for a moment.  It was great.  Finding real life ways to bring science to my kids was almost always fun....

 Wednesday  Here are some happy things from today: Work was rough, but I made it through, yay!  I was assigned to stow which meant lots of bending and lifting.  The end result is that I am tired and achy.  I'm thankful for the friendly faces of some of the people I've met there. Pretty much the first thing I did when I got home was stretch out on my bed and stretch out my back and fall asleep.  I set a timer, so I didn't sleep for long.   After doing some dishes and eating I decided to finish the Lego flowers.  When the flower I was given for Valentine’s Day is gone, I'll see how they look in a vase.   ☮ Continued listening to: The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging , by Charles H. Vogl. Continued reading: A Trail Through Time , by Jodi Taylor.   Thank you for being here and being part of my daily happy things. Stay safe!

 Intention for the day: Be joyful/happy. Happy Thursday things: At work, I didn't work in Problem Solve.  It was good for the most part.  Honestly, it was much easier to leave the job behind for the weekend.  At home a housemate needed a ride.  I didn't want to because I tend to be very tired after work.  Corvidae couldn't because of some health concerns.  However, together we were able to conquer this task.  I drove and Corvidae kept me awake for the drive home.  The housemate was able to be dropped off at a friend's house and Corvidae and I got to talk about random things without house chores looming over us.  It was a win-win-win.  Then I had a snack, opened my Amazon packages, and went to my room to ‘rest’.  Ten hours later and I'm awake writing this blog.  I didn't sleep that whole time, almost 8.5 hours according to FitBit.  I did wake up and try to write, only to fall back asleep.  Also, I have laundry in ...

 Thursday Intention for the day: Be joyful/happy. Here are my happy things from Thursday: It was an odd day at work.  Problem Solve had a disproportionate number of problems compared to how many packages came into the building.  At one point there were some empty boxes and some loose products that had nothing to do with each other.  Like another building gave us their problems to solve!  Anyhow, we needed extra staffing to get it all done.  With some teamwork, we did.   Yay!   At home I was asked if I could pick up a housemate after school.  I was able to and I got to start having a good conversation with them.  They have asked me to help teach them to drive a manual transmission vehicle.  I look forward to that, but I fell asleep today. Sleep.  I had intended to take a nap, get up for a little while and then go back to sleep for the night.  Which I sort of did, only I ended up allowing the cats into my room....

 Wednesday  Intention for the day: Be joyful/happy. Some happy things from today: It was slow again at work.  Not as slow as yesterday, but because of the snow storm, our volume still isn't where it should be.  A lot of folks went home without pay.  Some of us who didn't, got training.  I believe I have now been trained (in the computer system anyway) for everything that happens in Inbound for my pay level.  If there is more, I don't know what it is.  I imagine tomorrow they might do the in person training.  Only time will tell. During the last part of the day I was trained in doing what they call Broomstick and in doing audits.  Broomstick is basically making sure all the packages have been put onto carts to go on the trucks for delivery.  Audits are watching people work, answering questions on the computer, and coaching if necessary.  Hopefully I will get more experience with that before I forget what I learned too. After alm...

 January 20th Intentions for the day:  Be joyful/happy and try to learn a coworker's name. Soon after I got home from work things that were not so happy happened.  One of those things was Gideon breaking a tooth.  As I prepare to get some sleep he is at the dentist with his mom.  Anyhow, here are some happy things from today: When I left for work I looked up at the stars.  I was in a bit of a hurry, partially just because it was really cold in the middle of the night.  The stars looked different than they do from the old house, less than three miles from here.  I'm curious how much of this is my imagination/brief amount of time and how much is the direction I was looking.  One of these days I'll take more time and really look.  🤩 On the way to work an owl flew in front of my car.  That was cool and a little startling. Last night I didn't sleep well.  As I write this I have Mochi the Cat in my room.  I'm doing everything I...

 January 8th Intention for the day: Same as the last two days…As I go through my work day it is my intention to learn someone's name I don't already know.  I also intend to do my best to keep a happy attitude throughout. Here are my happy things from today: After falling asleep again after the alarm went off I had to rush to get ready for work.  I made it to work on time with no belt, no FitBit, and not as much food as usual.  But I was on time!   I got to see Nanni and Winston, two of the cats.  Nanni stayed high on the shelf, but Winston wanted pets. My inability to stay awake now has convinced me to finish this up.  I've been working on this for well over three hours, including sleep time.  So a couple of pictures is what I have.  With Kayden on my lap, I avoided getting off the couch for about five minutes.  I pulled out the coloring book and started coloring with my markers.  I stopped when I kept falling asleep.  End...