28 Secrets to Happiness

I got this from church years ago. I had missed the lesson the previous week but these were tucked inside the roll, so I took one. It's been hanging on my fridge ever since. Every now and then (whenever waiting for something to boil or stalling before making dinner) I read the list...and I feel like I should be doing more. So pick one of the items from the list and try it the whole time I am gone. I expect a full report upon my return.

28 Secrets to Happiness

1. Live beneath your means and within your seams. (Easy enough to do when I keep buying bigger seams!)
2. Return everything you borrow. (I do...except for that one library book we can't seem to find...)
3. Donate blood. (I did, once. They sent me a very polite letter telling me never to come back. True story!)
4. Stop blaming other people. (But it was soooooo their fault!)
5. Admit it when you make a mistake. (If it ever happens, I'm sure I'll admit it.)
6. Give all the clothes you haven't worn in the last three years to charity. (I do this regularly. Kinda feels good to have less clothes than my husband.)
7. Do something nice every day and try not to get caught. (One to work on.)
8. Listen more; talk less. (DEFINITELY one to work on.)
9. Every day take a 30-minute walk in your neighborhood. (Good idea! Might get to know the people across the street if I did this.)
10. Skip two meals a week and give the money to the homeless. (Do something similar.)
11. Strive for excellence, not perfection. (Tough one! 'Cuz I'm already perfect.)
12. Be on time. (Yikes! You mean...all the time?)
13. Don't make excuses. (Goes with #4, dontcha think?)
14. Don't argue. (But I am so good at it!)
15. Get organized. (Yeah, that would be nice.)
16. Be kind to kind people. (Okay.)
17. Be even kinder to unkind people. (Hmmmm...maybe.)
18. Let someone cut ahead of you in line. (Only if their kid is screaming louder than mine.)
19. Take time to be alone. (Does hiding from my kids in the closet count?)
20. Reread a favorite book. (I do this one every now and then. Usually read "Jane Eyre.")
21. Cultivate good manners. (Hard one with small children who seem to delight in being ill-mannered.)
22. Be humble. (That's easy enough because every time I start thinking I'm good at something, it always goes horribly wrong.)
23. Understand and accept that life isn't always fair. (Don't I know it!)
24. Know when to say something. (Oh, I always have something to say; hence the unnecessary comments after each point!)
25. Know when to keep your mouth shut. (Ummmm, that's a hard one for me. Obviously.)
26. Don't criticize for 24 hours. (I think I will pick this one...)
27. Learn from the past, plan for the future and live in the present. (But I do miss the 80s.)
28. Don't sweat the small stuff. (Grrrr...my favorite thing to do is stress out about the little things.)

Okay, I'm going with #26. Gonna try it for the whole vacation, but I'm limiting it only to those in our immediate party. Wait staff and obvious idiots in public are free game.

And did you notice my way cool map at the bottom of the blog? Pretty nifty, eh? It's all the states I've been to with the Man (and eventually, with the kids). I just love how they had to tell people that Alaska was "not to scale." Makes me giggle!

Miss me while I'm gone!