My Happy List

Following the example of a friend I have put together a list of 100 Things That Make Me Happy as an exercise to help me write my New Year's Resolutions.

1. watching the sunrise
2. going to an orchestra performance
3. discovering a new song
4. seeing a chipmunk dart across the road
5. vising museums
6. my shiny kitchen sink
7. singing with the radio
8. playing the piano
9. snuggling
10. sitting by the fire with my hunny and a steaming mug of something
11. speaking Spanish
12. dressing for cold weather
13. uncluttered surfaces
14. clean windows
15. writing essays
16. wearing skirts
17. a neat and tidy house
18. touching handcrafted objects (wood, stone, metal, cloth)
19. stimulating conversations
20. walking in the forest
21. clean hair
22. taking photographs
23. discovering someplace new
24. recycling
25. instructing others
26. tending plants
27. chopping vegetables
28. skipping
29. whistling/humming
30. hiking
31. camping
32. identifying flora and fauna
33. reading poetry
34. clean floors
35. making charts, graphs, spreadsheets, lists
36. losing myself in a great novel
37. clean teeth
38. being under budget
39. performing music
40. taking a walk by myself or with someone else
41. hearing birds chirping
42. hot springs in the winter
43. swimming in the ocean
44. building sand castles on the beach
45. watching monkeys in the wild
46. riding a bicycle
47. getting a bargain
48. watching the full moon rise
49. an intricate murder mystery story
50. dancing in the rain
51. donating 
52. chopping wood with an ax
53. using power tools to create something
54. vibrant colors
55. fresh air
56. autumn leaves crunching under my feet
57. the smell of earth
58. building a fire
59. massages
60. warm socks
61. soft skin
62. incense
63. candles
64. kittens
65. Indian food
66. laughing
67. snow
68. being early
69. trying to take photos of butterflies
70. hot tea on a brisk day
71. comfortable shoes
72. building a snowman
73. the smell of flowers
74. walking tall
75. the taste of cold water
76. the smell of pine sap
77. making someone laugh
78. getting a phone call for no reason but to chat
79. matching colors
80. receiving a compliment
81. finishing a project
82. singing in the shower
83. dancing (alone or with someone else)
84. singing karaoke
85. trying new recipes
86. bird watching
87. journal writing
88. meeting up with friends
89. seeing a live musical performance
90. learning another language
91. doing an assignment well and on time
92. learning something fascinating and telling someone else
93. being a good listener
94. having people over for dinner
95. the smell of fresh herbs and spices
96. libraries
97. big city lights
98. climbing trees
99. road trips with the windows down
100. talking with my professors

We Will Move 1200 Miles

I have never lived more than 26 miles from where I was born, so I am very excited and a little nervous to be moving over 1,200 miles away. How does one prepare for such a big change? I always research a destination and try to imagine it before I see it, but this time I am not researching a vacation. This is the place where we will make our new home.

Instead of seeing the Rocky Mountains our relief will be the foothills of the Appalachians, the Allegheny Plateau. We will share the same zip-code with everyone in town. I will struggle with pronouncing the town's name, Chillicothe (Chill-uh-kawthy), and always wonder how the Shawnee said the word. I will hope to meet one of the rare descendants of the Hopewell culture, 0.34% of the Chillicothe population today, and ask them to teach me about their ancestors.

For my husband, this will be like going home. He hasn't lived so close to his birthplace in almost two decades. He has a dozen known relatives nearby, and likely a hundred more, for many of the Bishops have lived in Ohio since their arrival in 1807. This will be a good time to visit courthouses and interview great-aunts and uncles to learn more about my husband's roots.

All I know about the area through facts and maps can be learned remotely, visually. I've visited Ohio a handful of times, but I have never been there long enough to learn how to recognize the special flora of the region, to know what the seasons will bring from one year to the next, to estimate an early frost or the coming of rain. It will be a pleasure to embrace this new place with all of my senses and to continue my learning and growth in southern Ohio.

Neat and contained

I finally found a good setup for the dining room. Yes. While thinking of how we might be moving away in a few months, I thought of the perfect way to align the furniture. What is most important is this: notice how everything is neat and contained versus the previous setup here.