For the final What's Making Me Happy post for 2020, I give you the amazing Monster Boba Latte. I have no idea what makes it so amazing and, honestly, I don't want to know because then I'd feel guilty and what's the point of that?! So, I'm just going to treat myself to one of these lovelies whenever I need a mood boost. 

Cheers to you 2020 and thanks for introducing me to the Monster. :-)

I've talked before about yarn therapy being my brain therapy, my way of working through plot holes and calming busy brain. Then once in a while I come across a pattern that I become obsessed with and have to make the same thing in every yarn type and color I can get my hands on. The gnomes were last winters obsession. This year, I'm watching the bunnies multiply around my house. :-) 

At some point during the stay-at-home experience, I jumped onto the decluttering and simplifying wagon. It's something I've meant to do for entirely too long now but without the excuse of being away from home all the time, well, there were no more excuses (okay, there were but harder to sell). 

If you asked me before 2020 what I collected, I would have answered crystal horses and Venetian masks. And I do ... but, it turns out, they are the smallest of my, um, let's just call them collections. 

This didn't come as a huge surprise, but I have a mug problem. I love mugs. If you've followed me on social media for any length of time, you've seen many of my mugs. And, well, yeah ... just look at the top of any blog post and my addiction is kinda obvious. When I reorganized the kitchen cabinets, I moved the mugs to the larger of the cabinets right above the espresso machine. My justification was "above the espresso machine" but that didn't fool anyone. 

And you'll be proud to know that even during the stay-at-home stint I managed to acquire a new mug.

It's a well known quirk in my family that I have to save every cork. There are containers throughout the house literally overflowing (especially now that I haven't gone to stores in search of another glass container. Several years ago I made a cork board but really, that didn't make much of a dent in the stash.

Griffin is trying to help with the overflow situation by stealing corks and taking them to his own hiding place (same place I assume he keeps the erasers and pens and whatever else he manages to steal from me).

And one more thing I seem to be incapable of passing up ... cooking magazines. Now if I only made some of the recipes in those magazines!

I was pretty tickled with myself for rocking the streaks and settling into a routine in October. November was going to be even better. Then ... plot twist ... a three week road trip blew my routine to shreds. It was a good--safe!!--trip but this post isn't about the trip. 

The post is about fuzzy socks (stay with me ... there's a connection, really!). 

I love the idea of socks and have a drawer full of them (there's even a store in The Distance Home that was inspired by my fascination with the Little Missmatched store and their, you guessed it, miss matched socks). Here's the think, though, I don't actually like wearing socks. You kinda have to wear them with most shoes but I've always preferred going barefoot at home. 

Maybe it's a function of getting older, but in the last couple of years I discovered the joy of warm feet in the winter.  

How does this tie back to the road trip? Easy ... we went to Missouri, Colorado, and Utah in November. All three locations had already seen their first snowfall. While packing, I shoved a pair of fuzzy socks into my bag, thinking they'd come in handy since we were staying at an AirBnB and hotels (I like hotel carpets even less than I like wearing socks).

Talk about an attitude change! I took the fuzzy socks off to wash and when I needed normal socks that fit in shoes (and no, borrowing my kid's shoes so I could stay in thick fuzzies wasn't an option). 

Since returning home, I've ordered several new pairs and grumble  when I have to leave the house and need to change, even temporarily.

Here's to happy, toasty feet! 

I'm dubbing the last Friday of each month as Happy Mug Day (and not just because I want to show off my pretty mug).

So, what's making me particularly happy right now ... 

Streaks. No, not streaking (no one would be happy if I was doing that). Streaks is an app that helps motivate you to stay on track and form good habits. What I like about it over my to-do list and planner: the challenge of keeping a streak going.

I was amused the first time my son commented about keeping a streak alive in Snapchat. I admit, I did the old eyebrow raise. Now I'm as obsessed with keeping mine going in this app. Granted, I've blown a few of the streaks and grumbled when they were reset, but my competitiveness takes over to see if I can break my previous streak each time. 

Sometimes, it's the little things that give us that boost of happy. :-) 

For anyone who follows me on social media, you've seen my obsession with crocheting and yarn. Over the years, I've expanded my repertoire from scarves (seriously, how many scarves can one person use and my friends were beginning to dodge me for fear I'd push yet another scarf on them), to shawls and blankets to amigurumi creatures. [You can see a number of them here].

For me, yarn therapy = brain therapy. I crochet when I watch TV or listen to an audio book or when I need to unravel a story idea. Busy fingers help quiet my brain. 

If I'm stuck on a story idea, I'll crochet something that doesn't require thinking. The repetition of the stitches is soothing, and allows my brain to wander. I can't tell you the number of times I've had "ohhhhhh" moments when I've stopped agonized and allowed the brain cells their freedom. Amigurumi creatures are more for stress relief and fun. I mean, really, how can you not smile seeing these?

I have a problem ... okay, I have lots of problems but we're going to talk about one in particular today ... overthinking. I wasn't always this way but it seems like the older I get, the less I trust my decisions. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? You get wiser (or maybe that's just a higher dose of don't-give-a-shit) as you age?

Anywhoo ... over the last few months, it's gotten even worse. For every decision that needs to be made, I have arguments for and against, I triple guess, and I make my family nuts with questions and backtracking and what-should-I-dos. 

Some are laughable (once I put the brakes on the spin-cycle of thoughts). Should I send that query out or stop? Should I keep reading this book even though I'm really not digging it?  

Some are more problematic. Do I say yes to letting my kid hang out with friends? Which of the various story ideas do I want to write on next.

And some are impossible. Should I book myself into a hotel or Inn for a few days to write and refill the creative well? When and how can I go visit my parents?

Last week I talked about looking at the positive instead of dwelling on the negative. Today, as I overthink into my fourth cup of coffee, I'm starting to think that maybe I've had entirely too much caffeine already. Or not?

2020 has, so far, been the year of more ups and downs that I can remember in a very long time. It's easy to rattle off all of the downs ... hello pandemic that pulled the rug out from under all of us, an insanely stressful political situation, wildfires and hurricanes, career turmoil, isolation ... I could keep going but then I'd have to crawl back into bed and hide for the rest of the day. 

That brings me to the point of this post. I'm not, by nature, a bubbly personality. I'm quick to worry about anything that could go wrong; to overthink and stew about things said (or not said) and how I reacted (or didn't); and to give in to the temptation of curling up on the couch and crocheting until the world stops spinning so fast and loud around me.

Lately, though, I've been trying to find positivity in even the negative situations. A few months ago, I put this sticky note on my desk lamp as a reminder. And, every day, I write down one thing that was positive, that made me happy, that reminded me there's good out there. 

Some days, I struggle to find that happy moment. Honestly, there have been a few "happy" entries that were clearly a reach ... "finishing the crochet donkey," "snuggling with a purring cat for half an hour," "not losing my composure today." But you know what, those aren't insignificant even if they felt ridiculous to write at the time. And when I stop overthinking and poking at the doubts, I can appreciate the positive in each of those statements.

​Turning the negative situation into a less-negative feels like an accomplishment. Turning a less-negative one into a positive is a major win! And each win fuels me to keep going. 

This morning I sat down to work through my schedule and goals for the week and realized something that stopped me mid-sip ... we click over into October this week. I'm equal parts horrified that we're already nearing the end of the year and anxious to see the end of 2020.

This year, Fall comes with a new set of anxieties as we barrel into flu season and with Cold numbers going up in a lot of places. I'm worried about what the holidays will bring and whether we'll be able to see family. I'm apprehensive that we're staring into another stay-at-home directive and more disruption on the tentative routines we've started to build.
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The theme for the October Silk + Sonder planner is "tranquility." In the welcome letter for this month, the creator writes: "There's something so special about the month of October - there's a homey, cozy feeling that permeates the air. I feel protected, warm, and safe."

​I admit, I was surprised how true that felt. I've always loved Fall - sweater weather, snuggling up by the fireplace with a good book, the shorter days that seem to invite calmer evenings (that's not to say calmer evenings necessarily happen but that's my fantasy). I love the colors and the smell of the air.

So I've set myself a challenge ... This October, I'm going to focus on the feelings of Fall.