I'm back..with #100HappyDays

I've really neglected this blog but keep thinking that I should get back on track with it because I do enjoy looking back through older entries.  So with that in mind here I am.  I'm not promising anything mind!!

So, I kept on seeing posts on Facebook and Twitter with the #100HappyDays hashtag and firstly thought it just another rather inane social media craze but it appears that there is a bit of psychology behind this one.  The idea is that you photograph something every day that has made you smile or feel happy (or even just made you feel less miserable than you normally do I guess).  This can be anything at all, yesterday for example I was watching the bees busying about in the garden and that was the moment I chose to tweet.  You do this for 100 days funnily enough! Apparently, if you make an effort to look for things that make you happy, in time you will find that things come to you without you looking for them.

I'm usually quite a happy and positive person generally I think, but I feel I've been well walloped with the Sh***y Stick lately and that has drained my happiness somewhat!  We've had such unneccessary delays on the lease of our shop and have missed out on Easter, Bank Holiday and now will also miss out on Father's Day sales, this has been incredibly frustrating and stressful for Patrick and to a lesser extent me (more on this story in a separate post).  I've just discovered some rot in my house, Dry or Wet rot is under debate at the moment but either way it's a bit of a sum of money I'm going to have to find in order to have it rectified.  There has been various other things too and all of this negativity lately has worn me down, so that's what prompted me to join in with this. 100 Happy Days.

What I thought yesterday as I was counting on my fingers through the days to work out that I was up to day 6 was that I could use this as a reason to get blogging again.  Just a short blog post each day with my happy moment and a short explanation of the reason behind it.  Twitter obviously is limited in characters so not always easy to convey the story behind a photo so my blog is ideal, plus I keep forgetting which day I am up to so this might help me keep on track!

I'll start off by posting the first 7 days of photos here and as I've completely forgotten today and so don't have a photo, starting tomorrow it will be one per day.  The camera on my phone is not great sadly so don't expect National Geographic style nature photos!!

Day 1 #100HappyDays. Tues 27th May - Knit Now subscription I've deleted the photo from my phone but it was a picture of my Knit Now magazine that had plopped through the letterbox during the day.  I'd had a really rubbish day and the weather was cold, rainy and miserable. I was very downhearted due to still hearing nothing about our shop lease.  I was desperately searching my mind for something to feel happy about and this was all I could come up with!

Day 2 #100HappyDays. Weds 28th May - grateful for my lovely mum.  Again, another wet, cold day during which I just felt completely fed up.  I visited my mum after work and this was my happy moment.  My mum Annie, is 93 and is in the early stages of Vascular Demetia.  Some days she is rather vacant...or on Planet Annie as I like to think of it.  Other days she isn't so bad but both my sister and I have noticed a marked deterioration over the last few weeks with the 'Planet Annie' moments being more often than her real world ones.  However, she is still here with us and that's a good enough reason to be happy as far as I am concerned.

Day 3 #100HappyDays. (Thurs 29th May - Mason tidies his room!) Son number two is home from University and we've had some discussion about his plans for the summer. He's going to try to get a job in one of the local bars or shops.  He's a typical teenage/young adult really who often spends all night online and then all day in bed!  I had nagged him a bit about the state of his room and as usual he was procrastinating.  However, after me taking him out to tea to Pave bar across the road from our street, where he handed in a CV and got a reasonably positive response, he came home and started to tackle 'The Pit'.  This made me very happy!

Day 4 #100HappyDays.  (Fri 30th May - Patrick and I celebrating the news that our lease is ready to sign). We got news from the landlord's solicitor this afternoon (our bugger has gone on holiday and didn't bother to let us know that no one would answer our emails all last week!).  Aforementioned news is that the landlord has approved our signage for the shop, which was the final sticking point for the lease and the solicitor asked if she could now send the lease over for signature. Patrick naturally said a big fat Yes!  Please do!  So hopefully next week, when our solicitor gets back from his holiday, Patrick will sign the lease and we should hopefully get our keys very soon.  This set us up for a very nice weekend.

Day 5 #100HappyDays. (Saturday 31st May - Patrick and I went to Farthings Steak Emporium in Beverley to celebrate our 8th Anniversary of our first date which is 1st June).  I can hardly believe it has been 8 years!  My life has changed a lot since meeting Patrick, I drink a lot more for starters!!

Day 6 #100HappyDays. (Sunday 1st June - watching the bumblebees and just enjoying nature whilst we wait for the bbq)  Sunday was a lovely day, nice weather and very relaxing.  In the morning whilst cooking breakfast we were privileged and overjoyed to witness a daddy blackbird teaching his offspring to look for food.  At first we thought it was a pair of blackies but I didn't think the colouring was right for a female, then I saw daddy hop over to Junior and feed him with a worm or bug that he had picked up and realised what was happening.  Junior followed dad around the garden a bit and then was escourted to a hiding place under the bushes whilst dad flew off.  A few minutes after and Junior popped out, poked up his head and was looking around, probably wondering where dad was with his breakfast!  Dad swooped down and fed him again and then disappeared again.  We watched them for quite some time and eventually Junior decided he was bored under the bushes and flew up onto the garage roof, looking for dad again.  I was a bit concerned that he was vulnerable to the neighbourhood cats so kept an eye on him and after a little while he flew off.  I was thrilled to have witnessed this and if I had thought to take a photo, it would have most definitely been my photo for today.  I didn't though, so the picture is a rubbish one of an unknown shrub in next door's very overgrown garden which was absolutely buzzing with bees all day long and into the evening.  We also watched a little mouse eating from the bird table.  Patrick had gone to put some bread crumbs on it and as he reached it, a little mouse nibbling away just stopped dead and froze, eyeballed him for a while and then scurried down the fence and under the bushes.  All of these little lives going on in our world, what a lovely thought.

Day 7 #100HappyDays.   (Monday 2nd June - both my boys home together)  Michael came home from University in York yesterday so joined Mason and now I have both of my boys home together.  Not for long though!  Michael is planning on returning to York after a week or so and also has an offer of an internship for the summer down in Oxford.