Moody?

Here's a radical concept: you can change your own mood. Maybe (hopefully) this isn't a radical concept for you, but for me it's a rather recent revelation.  

You mean moods aren't just randomly floating throughout the atmosphere waiting for someone to walk into them, like walking into a clingy spiderweb? And once I've walked into one, I'm not just stuck with it until I happen to walk into another one? Or until someone comes along and takes it off of me, hopefully replacing it with a better one?

Wow, sounds obvious. I guess I'm just a slow learner because this concept really did not seem possible to me not so long ago.  I'm not sure it even occurred to me. Now that I'm a little more aware of my own power over myself, I've been trying to be a more positive person in general. 

(My friend Angela pointed out to me that I was getting a little negative with my last post, complaining about the snow. Okay okay okay. Keeping negativity at bay is an effort. I'm trying.)

So okay, changing your mood might not always be easy. And if you're really depressed about something, it's probably not realistic to think you can suddenly transform your mood into one of unequivocal bliss. But you can improve it. Give it a try.

(Some of us might like to stay in a little place called Melancholia once in awhile, where maybe our sadness feels comforting and warm, like a pair of wet shoes you've been wearing for way too long. Once you get them off, you realize how much better you feel without them.)

Every time I hear that song by Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten, I'm reminded that I am responsible for my own destiny.

     Feel the rain on your skin
     No one else can feel it for you
     Only you can let it in
     No one else, no one else
     Can speak the words on your lips
     Drench yourself in words unspoken
     Live your life with arms wide open
     Today is where your book begins
     The rest is still unwritten

***********

So last night I went out like I said I was going to and saw Chris's band, The Smiths United. It was so nice to go out and listen to good music and see my friends and watch everyone in the bar having a good time. Chris is channeling Morrissey, even though that might be sacrilegious and maybe impossible since Morrissey isn't dead. Chris has been working really  hard and it's paying off.  

A few weeks ago the awesome lady at Moon River Soap Company in New Baltimore (where they sell handmade all natural soaps that are helping Lucy's sensitive, eczema-prone skin) showed my friend Shelly and I how to make tissue paper flowers when I admired the ones she had hanging in the store. Shelly gave me a boat load of pink tissue paper she just happened to have laying around and luckily pink is my favorite color. I've been playing around with it and basically feeling like a failure because these flowers look easy to make but I somehow keep screwing them up. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it a little bit, and I decorated Bethany's friend's birthday present with one today. So just know, if you are a female and getting a present from me anytime soon, it will have a pink tissue paper flower on it.

 

Today was a nice sunny winter day in Michigan. We're supposed to get a huge snow storm later in the week. As long as the kids get a snow day, I'm totally fine with that.

Yes I realize these pretty icicles are probably not an indicator of healthy gutters.

 

And if they don't, I'll try really hard not to complain about it.