Five things that made me happy today – 1/31/20

Kind words are like honey – sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.

Proverbs 16:24

1. It was 52 deg. and raining when I got up. When I went to the grocery store this morning, it was 55 deg. and still raining. Right now it’s 56 deg. on the last day of January. The pineapple express is in full swing.

2. January is finally over. It has felt like it’s gone on forever. February may drag on, but, surely, it won’t be as dreary and wet as this month has been. I went back and counted – out of 31 days in January there have only been five with no rain (or snow) reported, and three of those were mostly cloudy. January 16th was the last day that there was enough sun to talk about. I know I say I love the rain, but this is a little excessive.

3. Went to the grocery store this morning and picked up eggs, bread, milk, and salad for lunch tomorrow. I also broke down and got Diet Pepsi for Big Al. I usually don’t buy it for him, but I did this time because they were really on sale – $.99 a big bottle – if you bought four of them. Planning for big parties for the Super Bowl, I guess.

4. Last workout of the month with my personal trainer. The one who is working with me now is a substitute because my regular one has been on vacation since 1/6/20. She’s due back 2/5/20. I’ll really be glad to see her, although the one who has been substituting is pretty good, too.

5. I almost have all the information to be able to do the taxes. I really don’t have a feel for whether we will have to pay or whether we will get something back. I got pretty close to $0 last year, and I didn’t change anything this year, so I’ve got my fingers crossed that we come out in the same place.

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 1/30/20

Kind words are like honey – sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.

Proverbs 16:24

1. It was 41 deg. and foggy when I got up. Now, mid-afternoon, the showers have returned, and it’s 49 deg. The forecast says it will continue to warm up overnight to 50 deg. with 100% chance of rain.

2. I went to a very interesting presentation by AARP-Washington about Fraud Prevention this morning. Lots of good tips for seniors to avoid scams.

3. I spent most of the afternoon at the Wellness Center getting my steps in. 10,000 steps before 3:00 pm.

4. I finally figured out what the little bird who visits occasionally is. It’s a Townsend Warbler.

5. Haircut this afternoon. It will be good to get it off the back of my neck.

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 1/29/20

Kind words are like honey – sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.

Proverbs 16:24

1. It was 47 deg. and pouring rain when I got up. It quit raining shortly after noon and is just misty now with temps about the same as when I got up.

2. I spent the morning at the Washington State Historical Museum going through the “Tour of Shipwrecks Exhibit.” The curator of the exhibit showed us things they had and enlightened us about some of the places there were wrecks around the coast of Washington. The Strait of Juan de Fuca is littered with sunken sailing and steam ships. Between 1820 and 1920 there were over 2000 shipwrecks on our coast..

3. It was late enough when I got home from the museum that I didn’t want to cook lunch, so Big Al and I splurged for burgers and fries. Bacon double cheese burger for him and grilled chicken breast burger for me. French fries for him and onion rings for me.

4. Good workout with my personal trainer. She’s going to get me in shape or die trying.

5. Worked on some training materials for Earth Care for the church. It’s a REALLY big subject that stretches from species extinction, to plastic pollution, to carbon based fuel global warming, to sustainable farming and eating. We’ll have plenty to talk about through the year.

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 1/28/20

Kind words are like honey – sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.

Proverbs 16:24

1. It was 47 deg. and pouring rain when I got up. It quit raining about 1:00 pm but it started again about 5:00 pm. The temperature now is 49 deg.

2. In Bible study this morning we talked about Hell. I’m going to love finding out what Sarah has to say about it on Sunday in the sermon.

3. Big Al and I had lunch at the Bistro today. He had a Chef Salad, and I brought a tuna fish salad sandwich from home (I like my “seedy” bread better than their whole wheat). I also got a mocha and a scone for a snack after I worked out for a while

4. We had the first meeting of our Great Decisions group for this year, and got our books. I’m going to be discussion facilitator the first session on Climate Change and the Global Order.

BEIJING, CHINA – DECEMBER 01: A man rides riding a tricycle with plastic bottles to be recycled on a day of heavy pollution on December 1, 2015 in Beijing, China. China’s capital and many cities in the northern part of the country recorded the worst smog of the year with air quality devices in some areas unable to read such high levels of pollutants. Levels of PM 2.5, considered the most hazardous, crossed 600 units in Beijing, nearly 25 times the acceptable standard set by the World Health Organization. The governments of more than 190 countries are meeting in Paris this week to set targets on reducing carbon emissions in an attempt to forge a new global agreement on climate change. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

5. The resident’s quarterly art show was this afternoon, and Big Al had 5 pictures displayed. He writes short poetry and then includes it on a photo that illustrates his poem. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it.

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 1/27/20

Kind words are like honey – sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.

Proverbs 16:24

1. It was 44 deg. and rainy when I got up. It cleared off by 8:00 am, but by 2:00 pm it was raining again and threatening to continue all night and all day tomorrow. Now it’s 47 deg.

2. Laundry is all done – washed, dried, folded and hung up (without leaving the house.)

3. Good, hard workout with my personal trainer, including using some of the new equipment.

4. With walking up and down the hall to the wash, and walking over to the wellness center, and 45 minutes on the NuStep, as well as circuit training, I got my 10,000 steps already today.

5. It’s Monday, so it must be Gazebo Group! Happy Hour with my tribe.

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 1/26/20

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Dalai Lama

1. It was 49 deg. and pouring rain when I got up. It quit raining by 8:30 am and the sun played peek-a-boo with the clouds from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, with the temperature climbing to 53 deg. About the time we got home from church and dinner, the rain returned with 50 deg. and falling temps.

2. Good (short) sermon in church with an explanation of four types of predestination. The sermon was short because we had the annual meeting today after a catered lunch of lasagna, salad, and cookies for dessert. I’m proud of the impact our little church makes in the community and in the greater church. Out of a $359K annual budget, we gave $15K to local missions, $10K denominational missions, and $10K to special offerings.

3. Lunch at Kyoto Japanese Restaurant. Big Al had yakisoba, and I has sukiyaki. (No, I didn’t have two dinners. I skipped the food at church, and opted for dinner with Big Al later.)

4. I went back through the application for Bethany to become an Earth Care Congregation, and discovered that we have enough points. I’ll be sending in the paperwork tomorrow!

5. I’ve got to brag a little on my granddaughter, Kate. She is a senior in high school, and they just relocated to Kennewick, Washington, this summer from Birmingham, Alabama. She has been recognized for leadership in her new school.

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 1/25/20

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Dalai Lama

1. It was 46 deg. and rainy when I got up. It continued to rain off and on all day. Now it’s 51 deg. but there are promised sun breaks tomorrow.

2. Today is my baby boy’s 48th birthday.

3. I started knitting another pair of socks this morning. I had gotten out of the habit for a while, but it’s going quickly.

4. A trip to the Wellness Center after lunch, and I’ve got all my steps for the day.

5. There’s still a pastry left from my stash that I brought home yesterday. I think I’ll have a cup of tea and enjoy it, before I go back to my knitting.

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 1/24/20

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Dalai Lama

1. It was 49 deg. and partly cloudy when I got up. Now it’s 51 deg. and raining, although it did quit raining for a while around noon. Tomorrow is supposed to have a few sun breaks.

2. I went in to start the washing machine with all the sheets and towels in it this morning, and … IT WAS UNPLUGGED … and of course I couldn’t move it to get behind it and find the cord. Called maintenance and somebody came and plugged it in.

3. The sheets and towels are clean and dried and there’s no water on the floor!!!

4. Good workout with my personal trainer. The Bistro had several pastries and sweet breads left over, so I brought some home for Al and me to feast on this weekend.

5. Our friends who have been on a cruise to the Far East came home today. It will be good to catch up with them. Right now they’re exhausted having been flying home for 22 hours.

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 1/23/20

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Dalai Lama

1. It was 53 deg. and raining when I got up. Apparently the rain that has continued all day was a pineapple express, straight from Hawaii. Now it’s 50 deg. and should stay that way the rest of the day.

2. With the foul weather, I was pleased to be able to stay inside and catch up on paperwork that I haven’t had a chance to do this week.

3. I made a start on the Earth Care Congregation application with PC(USA).

4. I worked out in the Wellness Center, and then bought a combination lock to use in the gym so I don’t have to carry my stuff back and forth all the time. I also bought a refillable ceramic Starbucks cup that I can use, thereby cutting down on stuff in the landfill.

5. The washing machine valve is fixed! Hooray. But, alas, one of the knobs is loose (it should be easily fixed).

How about you? What made you happy today?

Five things that made me happy today – 1/22/20

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Dalai Lama

1. It was 44 deg. and rainy when I got up. It rained all day long, and now it’s 46 deg. with rain in the forecast every day except Saturday through the end of the month..

2. I have a (slightly) guilty secret. You may have guessed it. I’m a sucker for Starbucks’ Mocha. I know that the cups and packaging from Starbucks is burying the planet in waste paper and plastic. But I found this today, and now I’m not quite as worried and guilty.

3. We had our “Flash Fiction” class this morning. It’s fun, and forces me to write. I have a really hard time writing fiction, but I think it may be getting easier. Today we were supposed to write a story, personifying an inanimate object. I wrote about my new umbrella who was a little disappointed it didn’t get to go to Washington, DC, like it thought, and ended up in Washington state. It had hopes of turning into a sun shade, but felt that was not really in the cards here.

4. Today, FTJ treated Big Al and me (along with five other people) to lunch in honor of birthdays and anniversaries. Pretty decent food – mushroom and roasted garlic soup, coleslaw, something called Bourbon Rotisserie Tri Tip (which turned out to be brisket with a very nice gravy), baked potato, and mixed swiss chard and lima beans (I know that sounds awful, but it was really pretty good.) We also got birthday cake and mocha almond fudge ice cream for dessert.

5. After all that, I went to the Garden Apartments and started (my last for the week) load of clothes, back to the Wellness Center for my time with my Personal Trainer, and back to the Garden Apartments to get the wet (but clean) clothes to take home and dry. Now they are dried and hung up, and I don’t have to think about laundry for several days.

BONUS: I just found out that the part for my washing machine is here and should be installed before the end of the week!!!!!

How about you? What made you happy today?