DianaK

Year-end appreciations for 2016

So many wonderful experiences and people during these past few weeks. How incredibly lucky I am to have such a lovely life. ❤️

So much fun with crafts and making a few super duper special cards…I admit I may have gotten a little carried away with the process…

Libby’s hilarious birthday card. Any card that is pink and furry and SINGS is a truly excellent card! 😄

Super delicious and fun birthday breakfast with kids — I got a birthday candle in my butter! Hahaha!

A productive and fun birthday doing errands and hanging out with the kids and the Duncans. Pure bliss. ✨

Easy and fun Christmas Eve that included a yummy dinner with my fabulous family, nap time, and then going to see Rogue One with the kids.

Our little Christmas miracle…Toby and Luna both lying on me – and in contact with each other – at the same time! People, this has never happened before. It truly was a wondrous sight.

Amazing gifts  from the people I love…including mini stampers, washi tape, a purple mason jar filled with PURPLE legos, and food decorating markers! Yes, I now have free license to draw on my FOOD!

The joyful play time that resulted from  my food art…Playing scary monster with Ida — using a tape dispenser whale and kiwi fruit. Haha!

One of the best gifts ever from Sarah – and living in a household where this kind of gift is immediately put to use – popper toys! So. Much. Fun!

Drawing on the windows with Ida and Sarah.

Meeting my new advanced heart failure team at the U of M. They took so much time to talk through and explain things. And it was wonderful to have Jeff there with me to help take notes and keep track of the information. LOTS of information.

Surprisingly tasty hospital cafeteria fruit – the honeydew was especially flavorful!

happy-stickiesStarting to use the little love note stickies I’ve been carrying around with me. It felt particularly good to leave them all over the heart care clinic and hospital. ❤️

Crazy appliances that mysteriously heal themselves when faced with a repair person showing up. This has now happened twice with 2 different appliances….

DianaK

So many reasons for happy

I was reminded by a post made by my darling friend and appreciation buddy, Pam, that our public appreciation posts might be misleading. It may appear that we are sailing easily through life without any challenges…which is not entirely true. 😉

For the past few years I’ve faced pretty significant health and financial challenges, I’ve taken more trips to the hospital than one might wish for, and most days have less energy for doing than I prefer, but. But. BUT. (I stole that but part from Pam. I really. Really. REALLY. like it!) I know that while there are lots of things I can’t change, I CAN change how I experience every day, and. And. AND. My life is full of delightful people and experiences, opportunities to enjoy, appreciate, learn, grow, give, and love. And I get to choose what I focus on each day.

I write appreciations to remind myself about that choice. To remind myself and to rewire my brain to be on the lookout for anything that is fun or beautiful or awe-inspiring or sweet. Oh… and to always be on the lookout for reasons to laugh! 😄 I write these happy things down to remind myself that the world is full of good people with loving hearts, open minds, and brilliant wit.

Don’t get me wrong. I have days during which I dabble in darkness, flirt with frustration, meddle with malaise, and cavort with crabbiness (and associate with alliteration).

But when I take the time to notice, record, and share my appreciations, my experience of my life changes. Most days, most of the time, I feel happy. What a gift that is! It is my hope that sharing these good things with you will brighten your day, give you a reason to giggle, or help you feel connected and loved in your own life. ❤️

So… here’s the last couple weeks’ worth of happy stuff!

Surprise invitation to the Pretenders / Stevie Nicks concert! What a fun night with Dawn! Holy moly, Chrissie Hynde was amazing!!

Life with the delightful Duncan girls: Sarah, who is so smart and funny and whose laughter lights up the room, and who does amazing things like washing the dishes even when it’s my turn just because I’m tired. And Ida, who lights up my life and teaches me about eau de banana cologne (comprised of actual banana applied directly behind my ear) while snuggling me.

Wonderful lunch with Heidi during which we discussed a whole range of topics, including our polydactyl cats named Luna (yes, we each have one!), the fun of spreadsheets, and the excitement of taking big leaps of faith.

Seeing a very cool dance performance with Cina. The fun of watching Katie run the sound board. Yes, I am just that much of a geek.

Super fun Santa visit with the Duncans. Didn’t expect the gas station Santa experience to be as full and fun as it was!


Card making party with Terri and Ruby, Katie, Cina, Sarah, and Ida. Plus Luna. Good friends, good crafts, good fun!

Going to Katie’s winter graduation celebration. Yay!!!

Receiving my Secret Santa card in the mail – par avion, you guys! Par avion!


Delightful surprise gift from a client/soul sister. How lovely that we get to work together and find so much delight in each other. Light up necklace! Wheeeee!

Hot coffee. Hot cocoa. Snow in time for Christmas.

Solstice and the returning of the light! Whoopee!

Waking up crazy early and turning on all the Christmas lights just because.

 

DianaK

December Delights

The joy of living with a two year-old who loves window clings – and a cat who views window clings as food. All the decorations on ONE window! I love it!

Delightful ornament-making party with the Delaneys and their friends. So. Much. Fun!

Google eyes, glitter, paint, markers, sequins….all the crafty supplies, oh yes. 👀

Waking up to a nice little coating of snow this morning. Pretty!❄️❄️❄️

Quiet breakfast with the Duncan girls. What a wonderful start to the day!

Doing anything with holiday movies playing in the background. Today’s choice has All. The. Songs: White Christmas. 🌲

DianaK

Happy Project – Day 2: Snappy starts

Did you know that just a few minutes of bad news in the morning can set you up for a negative day… even 6-8 hours later?

Here’s a happiness experiment from Michelle Gielan and Shawn Achor that I’ve been working on incorporating into my days:Start out any conversation you have today by sharing something positive and meaningful.

So far I’m really enjoying the results of answering “How are you?” with something positive — as opposed to my usual “I’m okay – tired – overwhelmed – frustrated (or whatever version of that I might come up with).” These conversations have been WAY more fun. 😀

Have you tried this? I’d love to hear about your experiences!

DianaK

Happy Project!

I’ve been working on a way to share ideas and research about positive psychology in a way that feels helpful, accessible, and doable. For now, I’m going to post exercises here and on Facebook. I’m calling it The Happy Project!

Here’s today’s idea for increasing your happiness right now. If you decide to try it out and are willing to share your experience with me, I’d love to hear about it!

Eventually the exercises I post will be part of my book and I am interested in feedback about the wording of the exercise (does it make sense? is it accessible? does it trigger anything negative?) and the effect of both reading the exercise and of doing it.

Happy Project Day 1
What is one of your favorite colors? Think about or write down some things that color that fill you with happiness.

One of my favorite colors is blue. Some blue things that fill me with happiness are my kids’ eyes, Lake Superior, my car, morning glories, a favorite old flannel shirt, a relatively new bath towel, shadows, my drinking glasses, the sky at night, and blueberries.

Bonus happy: Create a physical reminder of that color and/or happiness. Screen saver, collage of photos, drawing, sticky note, poem, frame a handwritten or printed list of the happy-inducing color things.

happy-blue

I made a new Facebook cover photo for myself!

DianaK

Terrific Tuesday Dream

It’s actually not so bad to wake up several hours earlier than usual when you wake up from an entertaining dream like I did this morning! 😄

My Terrific Tuesday Dream

The kids and I crash land our airplane/spaceship ✈️🚀into the side of a deserted, snow-covered ❄️❄️❄️mountain. We are certain we are doomed, but begin to climb to the summit anyway.

When we get to the top, we realize that we’ve landed on an enormous sledding hill. People all around us are sledding down the mountain using a variety of sled-type items.

We each choose a “sled” and start down the mountain 🏔. About halfway down, the mountain turns into a giant indoor Olympic bobsled course that allows us to bank up on the walls and do tricks (like looping back up the mountain to pick up our kitten who has become frightened).

On the way back up the mountain, we take time to do a little kitten shopping and each choose our own kitten 🐱 (we shared one on the way down somehow). I choose an all-black kitten who is adventurous – but not reckless.

On our second time down the mountain, the course turns into a place to test drive Hondas 🚗. It is a frantic, fun, and fast trip down the mountain in my new car…

DianaK

Holiday Appreciations

What a wonderful holiday weekend that was! I appreciate the opportunity to play games, talk, and share food with so many of my favorite people on the planet. 🌎 I even got to meet some new beautiful people. (Well, they’ve probably been beautiful people for a long time…but knowing them is new to me!) 😉 My family (biological and chosen) and friends are the most funny, interesting, lovely people. I am profoundly grateful. 💜

I love the contrast of the intense hustle and bustle of Thursday and Friday’s gatherings…followed by two days of introvert recharge time with no specific plans, but lots of nice quiet time and chill small group hang out time. Perfect!

nov-27th-bday-giftsI super appreciate that somehow I got an extra birthday this year (this one, apparently, on Nov 27th)! 🎁 For some reason, I got three early birthday presents on Sunday. That was fun!!

How funny and strange to hear thunder and be caught in a downpour on my way to my eye appointment today. It is the end of November, right??15179029_10154729679213851_6021836303046596174_n

I also appreciate the fun of an eye exam (which I’d not had in, um, well, a LONG time). Interesting stuff! Plus…I got these super cool new sunglasses. #fashion #nailedit

The pure joy of getting to see Sarah and Ida every day. Srsly.

DianaK

Hospital Appreciations

After an extremely rough evening with Crohn’s complications (the pain of which triggered a PTSD-type panic attack), my heroes Katie and Cina once again came to my rescue and drove 🚑 me to the ER at 11:45 Thursday night. While I’d prefer not to be so very familiar with this drill (and I’m sure the girls would appreciate it if I could time my hospital adventures for DAYTIME once in awhile), there are lots of things to appreciate about the experience. 😄

The amazingly helpful effects of morphine, which brought my pain level down from 10+ to a paltry 5. Whew.

The ridiculous effects of morphine on my thought process…and the fact that Katie knows I’ll be delighted to hear about them later and takes notes!
Me: “Did I accidentally lop of the heads or something?”
Katie:”…what?”
Me: “Of the snow men…”
Katie: “….”
Me: “…that’s not it.”

hospital-view-nove-2016The view from my 6th floor room at FSH and the magic of watching winter appear out of nowhere…and not even having to drive in the snow! ❄️❄️❄️

The taste of chicken broth and apple juice after a steady diet of IV fluid and ice chips.

The taste of cream of rice cereal after a day of broth and juice!

The helpful effects of steroids in managing symptoms. I super hate being on them, but super LIKE feeling better. In an effort to find even more good stuff about prednisone, I’ve decided to be elated that my tennis elbow pain is almost gone – and that with my new, puffy face, it looks like I have fewer wrinkles….

The wonderful staff at FSH. I always seem to end up working with the most interesting, funny people! I especially liked talking with my nurse Carrie about the healing effects of laughter yoga and appreciation. It was also fun to talk to the woman who drew my 3rd blood sample on Saturday. She had such a pretty accent and told me what it’s like for her living in MN after growing up in Paris. She loves everything but the snow! ❄️ Oh! And it was sweet to talk to the volunteer who came in to give me a hand massage about her transition from living in Russia to living in MN (5 years). Another gorgeous accent! What interesting folks!

Getting to spend the day napping, watching HGTV, and watching the Harry Potter marathon while I recovered. More restful than hospital time usually is. It helped that I hadn’t slept all night… I was ready for rest!

Feeling so loved and supported by the numerous offers of rides home from the hospital. I have the sweetest family and friends!

Coming back home after a couple days in the hospital. Sleeping in my own 🛏! And coming home to newly vacuumed floors (thank you, Mckenzie!). So nice to see Sarah and Ida again, too. Oh, and the cats, of course.

How strange my perception of time is after not sleeping for a few nights and having my normal routine turned upside down. Add to that the fact that when I was admitted, it was autumn and when I left (2 days later) it was winter 🌨… and I have a super interesting sense of time, what day it is, and what season it is. It’s kind of hilarious.

Today’s new prednisone perk…since it affects my sleep, 😳 I was awake early enough this morning to see Sarah and Ida before they left for the day. What a lovely way to start the day!

DianaK

Appreciations 11/13/16

Walk with Sarah and Ida in the supremely satisfying sunshine.
Wonderfully warm weather for washing the car with Mckenzie.
Super night for super bright super moon.