sleeping in

It has taken nearly 11 years, but somehow we've taught the kids the art of sleeping in. Once upon a time they had me thinking that 6am was sleeping in, but no more. Yesterday I was allowed the extreme pleasure of my comfy bed until 8:45am! Several times over the summer we didn't rise til 9am. What joy!
There is something really blissful about waking on your own, without the squawk of an alarm clock or child. My slow return to consciousness yesterday put me in a great mood for the entire day -- and I got so much done without the sound of the energy-sapping beep beep of the clock to start the day.
I've had that wee taste of snoozing late and I crave more -- and I know that such peace will be denied on a relatively regular basis, especially once hockey season starts!

bathroom reno

It's amazing to me how small, ordinary things bring joy. These are photos of my new bathroom. We did the work ourselves (except for the mudding 'cause neither DH nor I have the patience for such a tedious job) in the spring. My bathroom makes me happy.

To understand why you need to know what I had before.
When we first moved in 1996 my bathroom had peach and black tiles on the walls, a brown shag carpet, BUBBLE GUM PINK countertop, and large lime, pink and peach peony wallpaper. It was not a place in which one could relax.

I lived with the garden-gone-wrong look for about a year, then in rebellion I painted everything white. I'd already torn out the carpet (on moving day). I was quite happy with the white institutional look -- mostly because it wasn't lime, pink, peach and black anymore. What I couldn't live with was the bathtub. It had been installed when the previous owner did the room over -- in 1957 so there was no finish left in the tub. If I scrubbed too hard with a coloured sponge I stained the porcelain. In April I issued the ultimatum "we get a new tub or I will NEVER clean that bathroom again." I got the go ahead for the bathroom remodel the following week.

So now I have all the elements I required -- new tub, huge linen closet, new toilet, vanity with 6 drawers, new everything really. DH got his request -- a hotel shower curtain rod so the shower curtain doesn't stick to him (in the photo above you can see that the rod bends out to give more room in the shower).

It's been 3 1/2 months since our project was finished and I still smile whenever I walk in. It's (easy to) clean, and organized. And that small thing brings me great joy.

I am reading a great book by Dr. Nick Baylis called A Rough Guide to Happiness; Practical Steps for All-round Well-Being. It's a bit like a psychology textbook, but easier to read. I'm about half-way through, but so far the premise seems to be that happiness is about balance. I remember taking a Psych course in university on Positive Psychology. There I learned that we should continually seek out the positive and you can only know positive because negative exists (not an exact summary, as that was a few years ago.) Dr. Baylis's book says the opposite. Happiness comes not just from the positive. Think how many times we've heard of someone having something great happen out of something bad. I'm thinking Lance Armstrong's Tour do France win after cancer. Lance says he was strong enough to win because of the cancer, not despite it. Happiness therefore is more how you react to an event rather than whether or not the event itself is negative or positive. Hence, balance (wholeness) is necessary to both recognize happiness and to be in the frame of mind to embrace it. (I"m really taking liberty here with this author's work, but you get the drift.)
One particular section of the book has caught my imagination. P. 138 "What is the meaning of life? is a common enough question, but it makes no sense. It's like asking the meaning of air or water or wood. Life, just like those element, is a limited natural resource, so a more helpful question is "What can we do with our life that would seem wonderfully worthwhile to us? ....Who or what excites us that we bother to get out of bed early, break a sweat, be brave and stay sober so we can get a good night's sleep, wake bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and try it all again tomorrow?" That is the question that's been rolling around in my mind; that and, how do I find the time anyway?