More Things to be Happy About

So, things have been better in these parts.  For those of you who have been asking. (And thank you.) I mean, not perfect, but better.

One of the things I'm supposed to be doing when I have a barrage of negative thoughts is a cognitive exercise where I replace the bad ones with positive ones. Cheesy but it actually kinda works.  And since the last few days have been uncharacteristically (for the recent past) hard, I figured it's time for another good old fashioned Happy Things* list. Here are five more things to be happy about.

Things Going Right in My Life This Week:

1.) The gym. It's been six months and I still love it. I think my weight loss has pretty much tapered off, so I might need to start doing it for fitness instead of happiness, but for now I don't feel like getting it up for fitness. So I go to my weightlifting class twice a week where I now feel confident and strong and somewhat like I know what I'm doing. And most other days I go and run on the elliptical or stairclimber or some such machine where I can log my time and my miles while reading twitter. And wearing cute gym shoes. While the kids play happily under gym nanny supervision. Sometimes for an extra few minutes so I can do some weight machines too. It's a good gym life.


2.) My bestest friend. After a weird and fighty weekend, Another Nathan and I are back on. (Yes, we fight. Yes we're almost *ahem* thirty, which is far too old to fight with your friends, but we fight like siblings. We've made peace with it; you should too.) And in the midst of some (totally unrelated) (and kind of related) hard spells over the last few days, I'm reminded that with the tumult comes strength and safety and confidence, to have a best friend who loves your husband and your kids and your life and your Crazy and your soul. And who's a damn good Wednesday coffee date.

for those who say I never post pics of myself

3.) I dyed some green pants. This seems random.  But I had been craving green pants, and couldn't find a non-capri, non-jegging variety (jeggings do not make hott Erin) that fit well at a normal price anywhere, but then I noticed OH HEY white pants are apparently in (please don't ask me to jump on that bandwagon), they're everywhere and in plentiful variety, so I will just buy some of those and then dye them.  And apparently pinterest has made me wildly confident because I did. And they are cute.

No full-length mirrors = standing on the potty.

4.) Youth choir. It started as an extra adult on hand for a Harry Potter movie outing, and turned into my legitimate advisor-capacity involvement. It's a fun and lively group of high school girls, growing in numbers and in confidence. I look forward to hanging out with them on Sunday afternoons maybe more than I should as a real grownup, but y'all, they are fun! They're full of stories of proms and new nail polish and shoes and summer jobs and college visits, and also faith issues like what's happening in our presbytery, and talking through texts of songs we're working on. Talking and tweeting with these girls is connecting me to church in a new cool way and I love it. I remember how important my youth choir advisors were to me at that age, and the idea of a generation cycling forward resonates with me. Plus, new friends are always awesome; teenagers are extra so.


5.) Delurkers. In the last week, I've had some people making blog comments who rarely do. Yay! And by people I mean mostly MARK. You know, my dearly beloved who reads every word of every post before anyone else, yet never posts any witty commentary, has commented! Let's harness this energy into a delurking week ahead! Y'all know you want to give me more fodder for my happy lists. Delurk already! If nothing else, tell me something that makes you happy and I'll feed off your delurky gladness too. Don't make me call you out #NathanReneeElizabethRyanMelissaAdellBradJennyDavid and others. DO IT.

Okay, hard days are officially behind me and I feel better. Positive thoughts... check.

Now lurkers, delurk!

That is all.

*Sarah, Katie, Kelley, Merritt - I know you're reading this. Praise me.