appreciation

DianaK

Appreciations 1/11-1/12: Creative friends and questions, spunky folks, goofy dreams, happy repairs

Pam, who taught me to use Creative Questions to make the best out of any situation!

Wonderful visit yesterday with my folks and Debb and Renee. It was so sweet to go to the January birthday gathering they have at my parents’ co-op and to hear the residents’ fun stories and see how much they all love my parents! Happy pre-birthday eve Mama! 🎂

Super inspiring people like the 94 year-old woman at my folks’ place. She is fiesty and spunky and full of life. How wonderful!

Short and sweet visit with just Debb. As much as I liked our visit to my parents’ place, it was nice to have her all to myself for a little bit, too! 💙

upside-down-pineapple-dream-cakeThe amazingly funny creations my dream characters come up with! In a recent dream, Laura was going to a holiday concert (which would take place at a highway rest area), but wanted to bring her own food… so she made herself a pineapple upside-down cake with a chocolate chip cookie crust — and filled with chicken. Ewwwww! Just to be clear… the waking life, real Laura is an amazing cook and baker. I’ve never had anything less than delicious from her kitchen! 😃

Super friendly dishwasher repair person who was not only fun to talk to, but diagnosed the problem and ordered the parts quickly — and then showed me how to install them when they come so I can feel all powerful and dishwasher-rescuer-like.

DianaK

Appreciations Jan 3-10: Note-taking, snuggles, craft-urday night, and vampires.

I’ve been a bit lax about actually writing down the many, many things I appreciate about my life each day, but rest assured… I spend most of my time feeling grateful for what I’ve got and thinking that I’m not sure how I did it, but I seem to have the best life! ❤️

Here are a few highlights from the past week. 😄

Reading and doing research with my assistant, Ida. She helped me make sure I marked ALL the important pages. I mean all the important page. Page 15 is very, very important! 😊

Knowing how to prioritize. The first thing one should do when the dishwasher goes kerflooey is not to try to ascertain the problem, nor is it to call the repair folks. The first thing one should do is make a sign to put on the dishwasher. #allaboutpriorities

Bedtime snuggles with Ida. Okay, well, any time snuggles with Ida. Oh my goodness how sweet it is to live with the Duncan girls!! 💚

The wonderful people who keep showing up for our Friday night racism/racial justice discussions. I so appreciate their commitment to growing and learning, and their openness and willing to be vulnerable. I am learning so much from these amazing people!

Craft-urday night at the Korpi/Duncan house. Fairy house, painting, and soup, oh my!

My beautiful & supportive family. My folks had planned to come with me to today’s  right-heart catheterization procedure – even though I didn’t need a driver – just to keep me company because I was nervous. But then since the weather was yucky, Katie stepped in and came with me so I got to spend time with her AND my parents didn’t have to drive through this morning’s rush-hour-snowy mess (although they were totally willing to do so!). I am unbelievably lucky to have such generous, loving people in my life!

My clever, always-looking-for-fun brain! I was pretty nervous before today’s procedure, so before and during it I kept asking myself, “How could this be fun?” Thanks, brain, for helping me notice how funny and sweet everyone I worked with was, the fact that they played Ingrid Michaelson for me during the procedure (and that they asked what I wanted to listen to!), the silliness of the doctor peeking under the sterile drape (which was covering my face) to check in with me and let me know what was next and what they found. Peek-a-boo!

vampire-bite-2017.pngPlus, because of the placement of the needle and a rogue freckle, I can now claim to have been bitten by a vampire. Mwah hahaha!  #forreals #iwasbitten

I also appreciate that my numbers were good and my docs are happy – and I didn’t have to get admitted to hospital! Woohoo!

 

 

 

 

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!

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

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.

DianaK

Appreciations 11/12/16

nov-colors-bullet-journalPlaying with fall colors in my bullet journal. Fun to color. Fun to have a system that works SO well for me to manage my work, play, and energy.

Eggs.

Bright sunny warm weather in mid-November.