My Happiness Project: Groundhogs Day

I have a little crush on the cute white bearded old man who stood behind the Groundhog Club handler in Punxsutawney, Pa this morning. His smile reached from ear to ear and his eyes twinkled like he knew how to squeeze joy out of each and every day. When I am older, I want to have crows feet that will show all who see me that I knew how to live, laugh, and love.

For all who have seen the timeless (ha ha) classic Groundhogs Day with Bill Murray, you know what I mean when I say in the past I have felt like I lived one of those days..."days" really meaning weeks or months where every day feels like the same day, just another date on the calendar. Those days where the minutiae of life seems to hide the passion of life and the doldrums kick in.

Let me tell you about my morning... I woke up to my alarm at 5:50am too tired to get up, because I was forced to break my resolution to get to bed by 10pm. This, being on account of being forced to do having to help my son complete his outline for his science project. He told me it was due today but failed to remember to bring home his library books pertaining to his project...(picture me pulling out my hair and breathing through gritted teeth). Okay, so it wasn't quite his fault that I didn't go to bed on time...I stayed up to watch Biggest Loser after he went to bed. What I learned, though, is that I must be flexible and allow for me time if I am to be happy, no matter how much sleep I don't get.

Back to this morning. After pressing snooze off on my alarm I fell right back into a cozy slumber. At 6:20 I was rudely awoken by Alan Jackson screaming that "she's gone country" all the way from the boys' room. (Luckily, I set their alarm when I tucked them in last night). "Surely, someone will get up to turn that off", I mistakenly thought. Well it got me up, even though the boys were still sound asleep under their blankets.

As they were getting dressed, I made my way to the kitchen to make breakfast. Although my kids would prefer to eat cold cereal every morning of their life, I didn't have any so I thought I'd cook up some bacon, scrambled eggs and toast. Sounded good to me. I got the bacon going in the pan and ran down the hall to ensure the kids were actually moving in the right direction. They weren't, so I had to help speed up the process. Long story short: after several incidences with several kids...I headed back into the kitchen where I had forgotten about the bacon. The kitchen was rapidly filling with thick smoke and breakfast was barely recognizable. On went the fans, open went the doors, out went the pan with charcoal in it. Breakfast, Plan B: eggs and toast. Samuel offered to make the eggs telling me how my grandmother, Nana, taught him how. I was a little hesitant, but desperate for time to make school lunches and get the girls ready to go.

He did an amazing job.

All in all, everyone was ready to go when Aunt Tina's big white bus came to pick them up. The point of all this is although the minutiae of daily life is still there, there is happiness to be found amidst it all. My happiness this morning began with Samuel stepping up to the plate and coming through for me when I really needed him. But it also came from seeing the way Benjamin proudly brushed his in-bad-need-of-a-haircut hair. It was so slicked down with water that it looked glued to his face, but he was so proud of it that I couldn't bear to "fix" it. It is also coming from the sun shining through my window, and the smile on this guys face:

I told you he was cute! My goal today is to find happiness in the little tiny details of life, even the details I might have found annoying, like when Hunter asked, "Aren't we going to have bacon with this?" Yes, dear, if you want it, it's in a greasy pile behind the mailbox.

Happy Groundhogs Day to all, and don't worry, Phil has been wrong in the past....I feel Spring is just around the corner!

Gina.