Happiness is Making Something New

~ Jenny

I’m happy because I started a new book and I like it. I’d be happier if I finished one, but I’m taking what I can get.

What made you happy this week?

48 thoughts on “Happiness is Making Something New”

  1. I met up with a friend yesterday who I haven’t seen for quite a while. And this afternoon I snoozed in the sun and then ripped weeds out of the ugliest patch of the garden. Both the relaxing and the work made me happy.

  2. I binge-watched “Schitt’s Creek” and there is a scene in season 4 that moved me in a way that I haven’t been moved in a long time. I won’t spoil it for any other people who are finally checking out this series. I’m also working with a writing partner and loving that experience.

  3. Fall weather is making me happy. Every day, there are a few more red and orange leaves peeking out. My kids actually want to go to the park and stay there. The youngest one is doing a little bit more to entertain himself which means I can sit and read a book. Sitting in a pretty park in the fall with a paperback book is my idea of heaven, fwiw.

    We went to the grocery store as a whole family and it wasn’t a huge disaster.

    I finished reading a book the other day. I would put it more in the “interesting” category than “great” but I’ve been finishing so little lately, that it still felt good. We don’t have the nicest, most luxurious bathtub in the world, but I’ve been making an effort to have a long soak with a book once a week just to have some alone time.

    Long text conversation with a faraway friend made me happy.

    Anna’s story is making me happy.

    Playing with a fanfic idea I may or may not finish is making me happy.

    Cookie magazines in the grocery store made me happy. . .

  4. We’re having a blast of summer this weekend, so I biked to another part of town to have coffee with a friend and ran into one of former employees. It was nice to see both of them and be outside. I picked up a t-shirt at a local brewery as a BD gift for DH (aka man who has no ideas, even though my BD is this coming week).

    I had a lovely long FT chat with a friend who lives out West. We’ve known each other for over 40 years and no matter how long we go in between calls, it’s like we saw each other yesterday.

    I have started the process to organize the coop assignment for my Horticulture program on my friends’ flower farm. It’s not until next summer, but I know that’s where I want to work and they want me. Getting it set up early will reduce my stress level, especially since the workload increased substantially this week. Lots of trees and gardens in my neighbourhood so I can practice my plant/leaf identification skills whenever I go for a walk.

  5. I had a visit with my endocrinologist, who said “you appear to be doing really well after all you’ve been through.” That made me happy.

    My salty taste buds are slowly coming back – that makes me ecstatic! There may be popcorn this afternoon!

    My crochet project is still interesting, and the resulting blanket is beautiful – both make me happy.

    And, I pick back up a project from earlier this year. I might actually finish it soon! Hooray!

  6. My sister and niece are visiting. The sister is helping me with cleaning out the garage. The niece is pretty useless, bless her heart. I was not so aware at 23 myself, I remind myself. But it’s kind of chaotic and crowded in the little house.
    But I’m going to paint today and not get pulled in to and mama/daughter drama. These colors change so quickly, got to go out and do some plein air.

  7. Well, this is new but based on old. The newest Nancy Meyers flick. The latest addition to The Father of the Bride movies — part 3ish. The Banks family having a quarantine Zoom call. Very fun & sweet. Also, it can be viewed on Youtube & it’s for charity. Gotta love that:)

    Nice to see the cast reunite and there’s some new additions as well. Won’t give away any spoilers in case any one wants to take a peek.

    https://youtu.be/zBXL_jSxLuE

  8. I woke up grumpy. That made me happy. Waking up is not guaranteed, and must be appreciated. That set the tone for the day – grumpy, and happy to be so. I wonder how many other dwarves I can emulate? Dopey is a given, and bashful, but nobody seems to believe that one. I’ll happily pass up sneezy which will remove the necessity of doc. Sleepy? Later.

    It’s Sunday, so later I and all my instances will accompany Princess Dotter for food and retail therapy. No apples.

  9. Having a new Crusie draft to read makes me happy. Whether or not it eventually manifests as a book, I’m happy I get to read it now. And I’m looking forward to meeting Carter again.

    Any possibility “Finding Anna” would work as a title, referencing the confused identities and the fact that her outer presentation is so different from the person inside? Or possible “Learning Anna”? (“Discovering” is likely more accurate, but doesn’t fit as nicely with “Haunting” and “Stealing.” Seems better to stick with two syllables.)

    Please excuse me now. I have a draft to read.

    1. He finds her again about 2000 words later, so nope. I am not being dumb this time. The lovers stay together.

  10. I’m slowly coming out of a down-swing in my depression. A few days of being away plus a few days of ugly weather plus a few days of missing my pills (are you seeing a trend here?) and my brain chemistry was down the drain.

    Paul gave a turned bowl to our friend Lisa’s mom and dad and her sister wants to commission him to make 6 bowls for her to give as Christmas gifts. He is very excited about that. He told me this morning that he was really flattered someone thought enough of his work to not only want to buy it but to give as a gift! That made my day.

    1. The bowl story reminds of the current ad for Antiques Road Show on PBS. A bowl was made in China a few centuries ago, goes on to be sold in a store to a tourist who uses it I think as a fruit bowl. Is then borrowed from a neighbor for a party and shows up on the PBS show to become the highest ranking find in the history of the program. The bowl was made of jade, of course.

  11. Spring weather here is swinging from 36°C high on Friday, which felt like 40°C; to 14°C today. Not gonna lie, I truly LOVED Friday. I got to wear a dress, hydrate easily, and did not have the usual muscle aches. Frankly bliss. Happiness is sunny and hot weather!

    I’ve found that if I rearrange the Yoga With Adriene calendar to suit MY needs, I actually manage to do the whole month. I just do it out of the order that it’s presented in.
    Also, if I’m struggling at 20 minutes in, I keep it playing but do self practice of Iyengar immunity series or women’s health series.

    This means that I’ve been consistently doing yoga this month and I have a RECORD of it. Will post my version on Instagram once Build theme is over. Now that I know what works, I’ve downloaded October’s calendar with a blank Excel calendar and am seeing how to make the sessions work for me.

    I’m listening to Healing Vibrations on YouTube. I have two playlists that I’ve made and downloaded. One is the organ healing series. The other is a bit more general for sleep, chakras, etc.
    And THIS! https://youtu.be/nF66izYGQ94 I’ve found this sound bath for Depression and the Sound Bath for Mental clarity to be especially supportive.
    Highly recommended. Its such a small thing you can do, especially when you don’t feel like doing anything because your mind and heart lack the energy/will/neurochemicals. I’d love to know if it helps in ANY way.

  12. Feeling better this morning after being sick for two weeks makes me very happy. And my husband canned a year’s supply of applesauce yesterday. It is so good.

  13. Explored an old quarry – a pool of sunshine after a walk through looping creepers dangling from tall dark trees; with turquoise and lime dragonflies darting about. No other humans.

    Then just as I felt my holiday was seriously lacking in sociability, a friend invited herself plus a friend of hers I hadn’t seen for ten years to stay the night, and we had a blast. I remembered what being really happy with friends is like.

    I’ve been struggling with my poor DIY skills, but with help from my neighbour, who heard me sawing yesterday (4 inch square fence posts take a while – unless like him, you have a power saw) and struggling with my drill driver (first time I’ve used one) today. So now I have a plant table in front of both front and back living-room windows; next thing is to fill them with pots of spring bulbs.

  14. Well, this week has been a s**tshow; but, at least I’ve kept up with the housework and the dog’s been groomed.

    Anna/Lucy and Charlie were lifesaving.

  15. I put paint on canvas today and I feel like I can breathe for the first time in a while. It’s not what I was planning, but I have been staring at the sketched in lines for months. I am thrilled, for now. The critical voice will probably pipe in later.

  16. I don’t know if this counts, since I didn’t exactly make anything, but after driving my 21-year-old car for 19 of those years, it developed the same “won’t start” problem after I spent $500 to fix it a week ago for that same thing, and I decided this was It. Took me three weeks of searching online (while working full time) and doing two weekend visits to test drive various cars I could afford, I took Friday off and in the course of that day test drove two more cars and bought a 10-year-old Toyota Rav4, which pleases me. Low mileage for a car that old, handles well, has storage space and a roof rack, and I’m really happy, although quite a bit poorer.

    Driving the rental for those three weeks (an 8-passenger whale of a minivan, which was the only rental the place near me had) was hard and not fun or worry-free, so the contrast value alone is amazing. Now I just have to find the car title to my dead car so I can donate it to someplace and I’ll be a fully happy camper.

  17. I don’t know if I changed a setting on my computer (Or if you did on your website), but I LOVE the new font. So much easier to read, since it’s darker. 🙂

      2. Thank you, Mollie! My niece wrote her grandmother (my mom, 90) a lovely letter on pretty yellow small stationery in tiny print, in PENCIL. Fortunately, she’s visiting, so she read it aloud to Mom. It was nice.

        This is why it’s best not to have the quite young design things people in general have to look at, read, push buttons, etc. Because they can see well (usually) and they never imagine that most people over 40 can’t. You don’t know what you don’t know.

        1. It does make me wonder about the endless fancy cookbooks that are designed with colored page backgrounds and gray sans serif fonts.

      4. Thank you, Mollie! It’s funny, I didn’t realize how I felt about the old font until we got the new one! 🙂

  18. Brought my husband home from the hospital today making it the second time this month and the fifth over all so far this year. Yesterday while driving home from visiting him a deer raced across the street in front of me in broad daylight. I could have sworn she looked right at me and judged the distance and went for it. Oh, and also I woke early one morning and decided to give myself a haircut. Don’t recommend it. Should have thought about for a minute. Will be so glad to see the end of 2020. Saving Jenny’s draft till tonight.

  19. It’s sunny and relatively warm (about 70F) in Seattle, makes me happy. The smoke smell (from wildfires) is gone, I’m watching pro football (Go Seahawks!), and the PAC-12 college league has decided to start play in November. All happy-making! Plus the leaves are changing; I plan to drive around to admire them tomorrow. Plus, I have scheduled ALL the doctor appts I had delayed, due to Covid, and will take care of those over the next two weeks. Oh, and we have two offers on my Dad’s house, so we can finally close out his estate.

    And I got to read Anna’s discovery draft! Thank you, Jenny!

  20. I went for a walk in my neighborhood (I live in the Philly burbs) and I cannot wait for this political season to be over. Between TV ads & yard signs we are just inundated with politics EVERYWHERE.

    Although one was of RBG with a quote:

    Women Belong in all the Places Where Decision are Made.

    Say Amen.

  21. Yeah, for new stuff. Can’t wait to meet Carter, again, all grown up.
    It is always a pleasure to read you stories.
    Standing by for more installments whenever they show.
    In the meantime, I am repotting houseplants and bring the porch plants indoors. What a mess!

  22. Our neighbor has a volunteer cherry tomato plant that just keeps giving and giving, so he brought over another basket full for us. I just roasted a couple of pints with olive oil and balsamic, and had some of that over yogurt for lunch – yum!

    I posted my two completed knitted shawls on Insta this week, and THE DESIGNER of one of them commented and said that it’s gorgeous. Really made my week, especially since I’m a baby knitter.

    And I made great progress in getting the driveway patio cleaned up and cleared out. We’re having Big Trash come take a bunch of stuff on Wednesday, and then I can powerwash the flagstone, which will make me very happy.

  23. My 98-year-old aunt tested positive for COVID four days ago. An X-ray showed that her chest and lungs are clear, and she’s feeling good and otherwise asymptomatic, so that’s happy and a huge relief.

  25. I went on vacation. Two days in Assateague walking and watching the ocean. (It was roiling–definitely not for swimming!) Five days at a tiny house AirBnB in the middle of nowhere. Luckily it turns out that a friend lives in Really Nowhere nearby, so we had some good meals and went kayaking (fiddler crabs! eagles! heron! egrets!). Then I continued the loop to Williamsburg, which I hadn’t visited since I was a kid.

    Plus since I drove, I didn’t have to stress about making flights!

    1. Assateague Island is one of my favorite places.

      My ex has a 2nd home in Berlin MD. I don’the miss him, but miss easy access to the ocean there.

      I went all year round & loved it

      1. It was fun to explore the non-Delaware, non-Maryland part of the Eastern Shore. I plan to go back. I have a standing invitation from my friend now, and there’s an enormous (2nd largest in Virginia!) antique mall that I only briefly explored. Plus nature walks etc.

  26. Happy weekend. Painted more coats on the little playhouse of many colours. Saturday was my birthday (I made another year, woo-woo) and Sunday was my youngest granddaughter’s birthday. We celebrated with a big take out Indian meal. Sooo good with only one meat dish for Grampy. I made an apple crisp and DIL made a vegan pumpkin pie from a recipe I found last year. It is very delicious. Would never know if was a vegan pie.

    Loving the Anna story. Made my day. Still processing stuff. Waiting for a cardiologist appt.

  27. My moods have been swinging down the past couple of weeks. Am trying to self-medicate with more exercise, more time watching the birds, a little bit of therapeutic weed-pulling in the backyard.

    Have another new book ready to launch (because I just can’t seem to stop writing) and am really wishing my beta reader was not also stressed-out and depressed. I need feedback beyond ‘nice teaser.’ Preferably good feedback. The 5-star rating someone posted was nice, but a 5-star review would have been awesome. Taking what I can get.

    So, not exactly happy, but at least productive?

  28. Thank you, Jenny, for the inspiration! I have been struggling with revising and closing plot holes in my work-in-progress. (And with finishing it, but that’s another story.) Today I started writing down the scene in my head that is an early scene on the “next” book. And I am feeling inspired again about the first book. So I am actually writing again, after not getting anywhere for awhile. Thanks!

  29. A mixed bag here. Got the garden mostly pulled out, but seriously hurt my arm the Saturday before last doing the first chunk (who knew you could get tennis elbow from gardening? or that tennis elbow hurt so damned much?). But then my best friend, who usually helps me in the garden all summer but didn’t this year because of Covid, came to help me finish it off, so at least it’s done. Except planting the garlic, which she’ll come help with in a couple of weeks.

    Finished the second cozy mystery and sent it off to my editor three whole days before it was due (although she then informed me she wasn’t going to get to read it until November, sigh). Still, that was happy. And my mystery writer pal Donna Andrews read it and said it didn’t suck (okay, she said it was good, but she’s very nice), and since I really couldn’t tell, that was very much happy.

    But my 15 year old cat Angus has been suddenly going downhill the couple of weeks, and after spending the weekend at the vet’s trying one last-ditch treatment for a possible blood infection, we got test results that said that wasn’t the cause of his drastic anemia. I’ve brought him home for a last few days of love and comfort, but it is really hard. I am, however, so happy that I found him at the shelter when he was seven months old and that he has blessed me with his company ever since. He is a beautiful, sweet yellow boy who has gotten along with every other cat I’ve had in the house (even Luna, who was so nasty to everyone else she eventually had to be rehomed to an only cat new mama) and has the loudest purr I’ve ever heard.

    I suspect happy is going to be in pretty short supply around here for a bit. Sorry.

    3. I’m so sorry. But you’ve given him a happy lifetime, and he’s given you a wonderful decade and a half and many happy memories. Give him a scritch for me.

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