For Those of Us Who Don't Get to Go to the Caribbean this Winter

I've been feeling a little sorry for myself that I am not going on a cruise or a vacation to somewhere warm and balmy. Although some warm and balmy spots (Haiti) are probably a little less fortunate than here. OK, so no more feeling sorry for myself. I have a home that is still standing, a family that is intact, and I can brush my teeth every morning and have a hot bath. Life's not so bad. And today is National Pie Day. Just so you know.

I have a new goal for January. It is to write down every day things that have made me happy. Here are some things from my list so far:

*yummy food
*the weekend
*not using credit cards for my shopping
*delicious nap with a fuzzy blanket and the cat
*loyal friends
*no sugar
*rain boots for shovelling slush
*dependable children
*plowing snow this morning without crashing

And I'm pretty sure my Boston Cream Pie that I'm going to make will make the list as well. I've only done this for 3 days and my outlook on January is better already.

So to wrap it up, here are 2 happy quotes:



"There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world." Robert Louis Stevenson




"I have two choices. I can choose to be happy or I can choose to be sad. I choose to be happy." Marjorie Pay Hinckley

So for today, I will choose to be happy and hope that it rubs off on the rest of the world. And if any of you are going on vacation to the Caribbean, I hope you bring me some vanilla. Because then I will be even more happy. The End.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Even though this is one of my new favorite books, I am not writing about the book. I am also not writing about pie. What I am writing about is niceness. Specifically, I am writing about nice people at the bottom of the pie of humanity.

I've been thinking lately about what makes really nice people. It is a mystery to me since deep down, I am not very nice. I like to pretend that I am and I keep trying to be nicer, but at my core, I am selfish and mean. So one of the hallmarks of a nice person, to me, is that when they talk to you, they like to talk about you. (This is why I like my nice friends.) First, they ask about all my children--and here's a secret: Doting on my children is something I simply can't resist. And nice people ask about things I'm interested in. They also ask lots of questions. Sometimes I play a game to see if I can steer the conversation topic to them so I'm not just talking about me the whole time. It's hard to do. And usually I'm quite happy talking about me. But that is because I am not very nice. There are other things, too, that nice people do--but this is the one I've been thinking about.

Believe it or not, I am trying to be a nice person. I have it on good authority that it's possible to change your very nature, which is good, since the one I came with is pretty self-centered. Luckily, I seem to have an inordinate number of nice friends to learn from. Some of them might even know how to make pie, which would be nice of them to bring me. It's just a thought.