My hus­band recently updated his sta­tus: I can­not believe that the pur­pose of life is to be “happy.” I think the pur­pose of life is to be use­ful, to be respon­si­ble, to be com­pas­sion­ate. It is, above all, to mat­ter and to count, to stand for some­thing, to have made some dif­fer­ence that you lived at all.

With­out him know­ing two days prior, I had vis­ited the library and checked out two books on hap­pi­ness! Guess the main rea­son was…that was his favorite line to me. He would say, “I just want you to be HAPPY!” . As stud­ies have shown..not really sure how they come up with these fig­ures, 50% of hap­pi­ness is genetics(which I can tell you already I would be at a dis­ad­van­tage. LOL) Life cir­cum­stances, age, gen­der, eth­nic­ity, mar­i­tal stat­ues, income, health, occu­pa­tion and reli­gious affil­i­a­tion account for 10 — 20 percent…that leaves about 30% up to me. :) Well actu­ally, Hap­pi­ness comes from the Lord, but what does this really mean? The oppo­site of hap­pi­ness, is unhap­pi­ness — Not depres­sion. So many peo­ple think if you are not happy then you must be depressed. Depres­sion is so much more seri­ous and should be dealt with differently.

Could I find the Secret to happiness…probably not!! It has been stud­ied for­ever and the great­est minds have already laid out what it is to be happy. I just want to be the best per­son I can be around, friends and fam­ily and make a dif­fer­ence. I find when you are happy, you light up everyone’s life around you! If it takes really learn­ing what it takes and mark­ing off goals…I am up for the chal­lenge! Expect a hap­pier me…and be pre­pared to hear all about the journey.

This was a small chal­lenge but one step closer! The other day when I went to the gro­cery store, I decided that THIS day I would not look at the ground while I was walk­ing, instead I would look at peo­ple when they looked at me and actu­ally acknowl­edge them with a smile…or a sim­ple Hello! I walked around with a smile! Right away a stranger, not an employee went and grabbed a cart for me first before he got one for him­self. I found a lot of peo­ple smil­ing back. I even saw some­one I knew and didn’t scurry behind the next aisle as fast as I could to get away from them. LOL Come on we have all done that! I say live a hap­pier life and you won’t have any rea­son not to be use­ful, to be respon­si­ble, to be com­pas­sion­ate. It is, above all, to mat­ter and to count, to stand for some­thing, to have made some dif­fer­ence that you lived at all.

In chess, the pawn is, gen­er­ally speak­ing, the least pow­er­ful of the pieces on the board. The pawn is used as a “foot sol­dier” by the player. They are an inte­gral and vital part of the game, but are read­ily sac­ri­ficed by a player to achieve objec­tives. Look­ing at the pawn in this light reduces the pawn to the level of an instru­ment or a tool to be manip­u­lated by the player. Now for the anal­ogy.
A per­son who feels like a pawn in a chess match is feel­ing used or treated as expend­able to the pur­pose of some­one else’s ends. He’s just a tool to be applied for another’s gain, and no thought is given to his own worth by the indi­vid­ual mak­ing the deci­sions. The per­son who is a pawn is just a foot sol­dier in a big war, and the dan­gers he con­fronts and the per­sonal risks to which he is exposed are lost to the shot callers who decide what moves, where it moves to, and when it moves.
This sums it up for me, some days I feel like a pawn…well almost every­day lately!
With bills that have to get paid…children going this way and that…pressure of every­day life and not feel­ing as what you have to say really mat­ters.
Guess I can just be happy I am still on the board!

Bridal Broach Bou­quets
I saw these online and thought they are so cool by Hollee Mollee designs…something you can hold on to for­ever and so pretty at the same time.

To order the gor­geous broaches you see here go to
Lion­s­gat­eDesigns — Etsy Shop!

Let’s Go Fly a Kite! Although fly­ing a kite wasn’t some­thing I did often as a child, it is still a fun child­hood mem­ory. Work­ing on a project for my pho­tog­ra­phy class and fig­ured that Sat­ur­day was a great day to fly a kite and our back­yard was a per­fect place for it! The boys had so much fun. Their Uncle Josh and Uncle Bear helped them fly their kites. Josh thought his wasn’t high enough so he con­vinced Luke to let him use some fish­ing line. It was so high in the sky, we couldn’t even see it. It took him at least an hour to reel it back in. Logan and Connor’s col­lided and we ended up los­ing Logan’s in our neigh­bors tree…so we are going to have their mon­key of an Uncle climb up and get it!

Writ­ten by Robert B. Sher­man
With tup­pence for paper and strings,
you can have your own set of wings.
With your feet on the ground,
you’re a bird in flight!
With your fist hold­ing tight,
to the string of your kite!
Let’s go fly a kite
Up to the high­est height
Let’s go fly a kite
And send it soar­ing
Up through the atmos­phere
Up where the air is clear
Oh, let’s go fly a kite!
When you send it fly­ing up there,
all at once your lighter than air!
You can dance on the breeze,
over ‘ouses and trees!
With your fist ‘old­ing tight,
to the string your kite!
Let’s go fly a kite
Up to the high­est height
Let’s go fly a kite
And send it soar­ing
Up through the atmos­phere
Up where the air is clear
Oh, let’s go fly a kite!