Ten Things (or so) That Make Me Really Happy

It's Slice of Life Tuesday, so head on over to Two Writing Teachers, Stacey and Ruth's for some great blog reading.

I have not blogged every day in May, but I think I'm going to take some prompts from Jenni at Story of My Life, where she has a challenge to Blog Every Day in May.  I'm not going to actually DO the challenge, as May is just too busy AND I've missed almost half of May now anyway.  I got the idea of just hopping in in the middle from Mary at Mary-andering Creatively, since she just started it yesterday.  I'm just adding my own twist now in addition to coming in late...

The Challenge today is to write 10 things that make you really happy.  I'm going to start listing, but I'm afraid there may be 100 things that make me really happy.  I don't know if since I'm not really doing the challenge, that I will stick with 10 things, or not.  I might be finished writing now.  Maybe I'll just be a channel for others to go to her site.

But here goes.  I think I will start.  Wait.  Should I do it randomly, or put number one as my happiest thingy, or my least happiest thingy - though it wouldn't be least anyway because I have more than 10 and least would be like the 99th-ish?  I'd best start with the happiest maker, or I'd never get to it the other way without listing all 100 things.

1. My husband, even though sometimes, rarely, we aren't happy with each other.  Most of the time we are happy and very.  And the rare times are just that - rare and short-lived.  So, though he is not technically a "thing" that makes me happy, I'm still going to let him make the list of top ten...or the list of top one, if I stop here.

2. Wildlife walking through or using my yard as if I didn't live here.  Turkeys, deer, moose, owls, grouse, robins, chickadees, phoebes, mourning doves, squirrels, butterflies, dragonflies and hawks.  I'm not even upset about the occasional snake.  I do, however, hate the bees, mosquitoes, wasps and ants...oh, and spiders.  But we aren't talking about them right now.  Just the happy critters.

3.  My grandson's "hewwo".  I actually could put this first on the list, but my husband was first in my life and without him we would not have our grandson...I'm going to try to put an audio file in here.  He's so cute.  And I am not just saying that.  He is.

4. Pancakes.  I don't think these are going to be in order now.  I have a feeling there will be something that makes me happy even more than pancakes...oooh, besides them being blueberry pancakes with REAL maple syrup!  Now that makes me happier.  We'll go with that, so that the next thing really will be less happy making.

5. Spying a flower in the woods.  I don't care which kind.  They all are like little treasures that only you got to see.  Well, unless you are in a park on a trail and then others will and probably have seen it.  But I'm a pretty good pretender, thanks to my mother, who told me everything should be an adventure.  She was an adventurer in our backyard.

6. My mother then, should probably get to be on this list, again not as a thing, but the things she did.  Even though she's passed on, she is an incredible influence on my life.  She's still here when I need her.  I just ask myself, "what would Mom have done?".

7. Sitting by the ocean makes me happy.  I don't seem to do it long though.  I think actually I need to be walking by the ocean.  Sitting makes me antsy to be looking at the beach instead of sitting on it.  There are so many things to discover that have washed ashore.  I love finding beach glass, interesting rocks, creatures and even pieces of creatures... shells, that is.  And I love the sounds of the waves and the gulls.  I usually have to walk in the water some, even if I'm going to get wet and have no towel or way to get the sand off my feet.  It's not going to kill me to track some sand in my shoes!

8. The sound of the ice cream truck makes me happy in a way.  I don't think it deserves to be on this list though.  The ice cream it trucks around is terrible and expensive.  And now that I think of it, it actually always brings me back to a day when I was a kid and it was coming past the end of our road.  I finally got to my mom who gave me some money for an ice cream...but the truck was gone before I could get down the road.  I hate ice cream trucks.

9.  Ice cream makes me happy.  All kinds.  Plain or sundae.  In a cone or in a dish.  Just not melted and sticky on me or the table.

10. Book smells make me happy.  I don't like the smell of musty, old books, though.  Just new books.  It makes me think of the old Trixie Belden mysteries I used to buy, and the book orders from Scholastic and Troll.  We didn't have much money when I was a kid, but there was one thing my parents WOULD buy me and made sure to provide for me, and that was books!  I read anything and everything I could get my ready little hands on (oh, I thought that was going to be so clever when I wrote it...like greedy - read-y as in reading a book...but no, now I see it is "ready" which is a real word making it a not so clever and somewhat confusing usage of the word "ready".  I guess it could be "ready to get the book in my hands and read it" meaning.)

So there's my 10 things that make me happy.
I think number 23 would be my rose bushes out in front of our house.  They look scraggly most of the time, but when they are blooming.  Wow.  What a wonderful, sweet smell as I walk up to the front door.  I probably should make them like number 6 or 7 instead.  Well, I'm not going to keep this up, because now I'm thinking of other things, like my cup of tea with cookies, listening to Celtic music, making jewelry, sewing, baking bread...this is never going to end if I go past 10 or start second guessing myself.  So just assume, if something you know I like didn't make it to this list, it's just that 10 is not enough, and I can't always remember all the things that make me happy until they do it.  I'm happy now, and nothing is going on except my cat cleaning himself right here on my table beside my computer as I type this.  Computer #16, Cat #32.  The computer doesn't throw up hairballs.  Yet.