The Love Of A Rainy Day

Rainy days are the perfect time to cuddle up with a book and some hot chocolate.
Or hot tea, or coffee....or ice cream, but that is another story all about how Thomas thinks I'm crazy to eat cold desserts when it is cold outside. 

Rainy days are perfect for taking a walk with a polka dotted umbrella.
If you take a walk with a polka dotted umbrella when it isn't rainy, people will look at you funny. I possibly know this from personal experience.

Rainy days are perfect adventure days.
I don't care if it is a cliche, I will read any story that begins on a rainy day, or a dark and stormy night.

Rainy days are not perfect for waiting on a bus.
But even waiting on a bus can be fun, especially if you have someone to share your polka dotted umbrella with you.

From this picture we can learn:  

On rainy days it is better if the taller person holds the umbrella.

Rainy days make me feel feelings more deeply, and think thoughts more thoughtfully.
If those feelings and thoughts turn dark, like the sky, I look for a rainbow.

Rainy days are my favorite days.


What do you do on a rainy day?

Princesses and Love Letters

We did this last week (which explains why I don't have short hair going on in this picture), but it is still making me happy, and I have to share. Beauty and the Beast in 3D - totally worth it. Belle has always been my favorite princess.

(Yes, people gave us funny looks as we took this picture.

No, I didn't care.)

There are three important qualities about Belle that make her the best, and smartest Disney princess:
1. She is a brunette.
2. She loves books the way I love books.
3. She doesn't fall for the first good looking guy who came along asking her to marry him.

I remember going to see Beauty and the Beast in the theater when it first came out. I was eight years old, and it was magical. So it was really special that Katarina got to see it on the big screen at the same age (especially since it is her favorite, too).

And it is always nice to have a chance to rock those stylish 3D glasses, right? snort.

Linking up with 52 Weeks of Happiness and Dose of Happy Mondays.

***Wait! There is one more happy thing!*** 

Amy Sullivan asked me to be a contributor to Love Letters to the Underloved, and it went live today. You can find my letter to survivors of abuse on page 15, and beautiful, encouraging letters from great writers on all the other pages. 

What is making you happy today?

Music To Dust By

I had a phone call earlier this week. I keep trying to come up with words to describe it, but only weird seems to fit. The weirdness of the call aside, it has left me singing this song all week (which isn't at all a bad thing)...

(Soon And Very Soon - Andrae Crouch) 

When I was growing up, my dad had his music, and my mom had her music, and they were not often the same. Andrae Crouch crossed that divide. Dad liked him first, but by the time I was born, mom liked him too. She especially liked him on Saturday mornings, when it was time to clean the house.

Mom would crank up the Andrae Crouch music on the stereo, and she and I would vacuum and dust. This probably explains the whiff of lemony furniture polish and windex I think I smell sometimes when I hear this song. 

It is interesting the way music can take you back to a specific moment, and make those memories so vivid. Also music can soothe away the tension of even the weirdest of phone calls. I'm thankful for that this week.

Do you listen to specific music when you clean? 

This was my Sunday morning five minute stream of consciousness writing. Set the timer for five minutes...and go! 

Understanding Depression Led to Facing Sexual Abuse

One hot summer day, the kind of day when no one wants to leave the comforts of their air conditioners, the bookstore was completely empty, and we hadn’t had a customer for hours. I wandered to the biography section to re-alphabetize books and look for a new read. It was that day I came across a little book where the author shared about her experiences with depression. I skimmed through several chapters, and then hid it behind a stack of books. It scared me how much of my own life I saw reflected in her words.

Two weeks later, I was at another bookstore on my day off (bookstores are my very favorite places) and found another copy of that book. I wasn’t looking for it. It wasn’t even sitting in the right section. I re-shelved it, and left the store.

I couldn’t get away from that book about depression, though, because the next day at work someone came into my store looking for it. I finally bought a copy of my own to take home and read. But I went back to the other store to get it – not wanting my coworkers to see me purchase a book about someone with depression issues and start asking questions.

I still have my copy of that book. It is marked up, highlighted, the margins written in. If you look closely at those margins, there are small snippets of my abuse story written in code. Those snippets were the beginning of me admitting to myself what had happened in my childhood. I started counseling sessions soon after that...

*****

I'm guest posting at Emerging From Broken today. Please visit me there to read the rest of the story, how understanding depression led me to face the reality of sexual abuse in my childhood, and what it was like to disclose the abuse for the first time - to someone who was not understanding or sympathetic.

A Happy Monday On A Tuesday

Happiness is.....

Cuddles with my kid while waiting for dinner (that I didn't cook prepare microwave).

A husband who understands that having painted nails isn't enough when you are a kid - they have to sparkle too!

(This is not a Panera Bread commercial, although we did eat there yesterday, and it was really good. Ignore the label and focus on the sparkly nails)

Making Thomas stand by a brick wall while I take approximately fifty pictures.

(see - he doesn't even look annoyed)

A haircut.
And giant green leaves painted on a wall, because that randomness makes me smile.

Happiness is....time spent with family.

What is making you happy today?