Category: Life

It doesn’t take much to amuse me. Clearly. I mean, I think this blog is freaking hilarious.

My standards aren’t terribly high.

Take this hand soap, for example.

The lovely woman who cleans our house left it for us right before Christmas, and a few days later I told Andy “This good-smelling hand soap makes me ridiculously happy.” He was all, “I know! Me too! We should get more!” So then a few days after Christmas we went to Bath and Body Works to invest in more small bottles of happiness.

It was tough to decide, though, how many to buy. I mean, we are talking about soap that smells good. It’s a major investment! Andy said, “We have four sinks. We should buy one for every sink!” And then I said, “But wait – they are six for $20…. maybe we should buy six.” Andy justified this extravagant purchase by saying that we’d definitely get around to using all six eventually – and then he hit his estrogen limit, grabbed Sam, and ran out of the store, leaving Kate and me to make the tough decisions on exactly which scents to buy.

Spending that $20 seemed like an agonizing decision, and I don’t know why. I’m sure we spent more than that at Wendy’s on the way to the mall that day. But even after I made the purchase, I was comparing the price to the 10 for $10 Softsoaps available at CVS, and it even crossed my mind that I should check Pinterest for ways to make my own smelly soap for a nickel.

That is dumb.

The soap makes me (and Andy and Kate. I’m not sure Sam cares. Or washes his hands.) happy every time I use it. It’s a simple, cheap (yes, cheap) way to infuse a little happiness into my day. That’s well worth $20.

What simple things make you happy? How do you (or can you start) to work them into your daily routine?

Recently a study in the UK determined that people are happiest at age 33.

That is convenient for me, because I turn 33 on Monday.

Basically the theory is that at 33, people are old enough to know better but young enough to… I don’t know. Have fun, or something.

Psychologist Donna Dawson says that, at 33, “We have yet to develop the cynicism and world-weariness that comes with later years.”

Somehow I doubt that part is applicable me – I’ve never been short on cynicism – but I can see the theory to be true. I am feeling pretty good about my life these days.

(Yes I did just double my prozac dosage, why do you ask?)

I think 33 is going to be a pretty good year.

At what age do you think you were – or will be – happiest?

Sometimes life seems to fly by; blink and your newborn is trading his swaddle for a backpack. Other times the days slide by in slow agony, like when your children pass a cold or an ear infection back and forth and by the time it’s run through your whole family, a month has gone by but you feel like you’ve aged ten years. (A month of sick children is like six months in mom years, right?)

And then sometimes things are just a timeless blur. Time is ticking, the world is turning, but somehow things don’t seem to change. Preschool drop-off, pick-up, clean house, make dinner, little league game, swim practice, homework, bedtime routine, nurse the baby 4,000 times in the middle of the night, alarm goes off way before you’re ready, rinse and repeat.

Things are a bit blurry for me right now. Every day is a slightly modified version of the day before, til the weekend comes and provides a little variety and clarity.

Every day there is lots of joy, but there is also lots of exhaustion. And not a teeny bit of confusion. But along with the early-onset dementia, there are baby kisses and crazy dances from the big kids and family wii bowling tournaments, and if it’s a blur, at least the colors that whirl by as time flashes before my eyes are mostly bright. For that, I am thankful.