Can I let you in on a little secret? Some weeks I have to dig really deep to identify happy things. It’s not that they aren’t are, it’s just that the debris of life falls on top and buries them below my consciousness. It can feel like a slog to grab a shovel and set to work finding Happy Things amidst the rubble.
But other weeks, it’s like Happy Things form a giant hug lineup. As I stroll by, they reach out and grab me in deliciously comforting embraces. Good food – hug. Time with loved ones – hug. Sleep – hug. A wonderful book – hug. Whimsical fingernails – hug.
This week Happy Things had a party and I was the guest of honour…and so I’m going to celebrate.
CONFETTI NAILS
I can count on two unmanicured hands the number of times I have painted my fingernails in my adult life (really). But that’s changing and I love it. This week, I went for a fun confetti look – inspiration here; I just put a tiny puddle of polish on a piece of paper and then dipped toothpicks into each colour and dotted away! A certain tween – who loves to burst my bubble – told me she thought they looked like germs. But confetti nails sound decidedly happier, so I’ll stick with that…
BREAKING BREAD TOGETHER
Eating with friends is a shared experience and a powerful one. Despite a winter snowstorm, we we able to share a wonderful meal with our church on Sunday. Crowded into a dated-looking gymnasium with 250 other people eating soup out of cafeteria-style bowls was better to me than any fine-dining restaurant.
And then on Monday – a snow day – I made a soup and that led to an impromptu gathering. People splayed on the floor and pulled up chairs to tiny exposed portions of real estate at the table and it was so much fun. Nothing fancy, but food shared with other people (especially if laughter – and, ahem, fart jokes – are involved) seems the most delicious.
And then lunch with Joy where I served curried chickpea wraps hot off the panini press. Bon appetit!
LUNCH OUT
Speaking of food, we rarely eat out and it’s even more rare for John and I to eat out together solo. (Our weekly date nights are always at home, which I ADORE, but it’s a unique twist to have someone else cook.)
We went to an incredible local eatery. The ambiance – wonderful. The service – impeccable. The food? Perfection.
We shared a Korean BBQ Cauliflower appetizer. Mind-blowing.
John had the Hot Yogi Bowl and I had a Muffuletta on their homemade sesame seed focaccia and locally-raised ingredients.
And then there was dessert. We don’t usually order dessert, but this one…words fail me. It was called Winter Orchard and I want to sell my house and BUY THIS ORCHARD! (The online description: Basque cheesecake, baked apple compote, sea salt caramel sauce, apple chips, chantilly cream.) Perhaps the best dessert I’ve ever had at a restaurant.
BLOW DRYER MAGIC
I’ve told you this trick before, right? When you’re cold to the core, one of the NICEST ways to warm up is to use a blow dry to blow warm air in sweeping motions up and down your body?
It all started when one of our kids had diaper rash issues as a baby. The public health nurse recommended drying off the baby’s bum after each diaper change using the low speed/warm settings on a hair dryer. When we had to do diaper changes in the middle of the night – and were so exhausted we were incoherent – John and I would change/blow dry the baby and then sit in a heap on the floor and take turns blowing hot air on each other.
This week, A blow-dried my hair (talk about coming full circle in parenthood) and John and I took turns blow-drying each other. Bliss.
CANCELLED PLANS/UNEXPECTED MARGIN
Because of a big winter snowstorm, we ended up having a lot of activity cancellations this past weekend and it was delightful. It’s nice to have things to do and see and experience. But it’s also nice to get unexpected parcels of white space scattered in and among our days.
BONUS ROUND
- Freshly mopped floors.
- Magic Bags. Always and forever.
- Pulling a chair up in front of the fire and sitting by the propane fireplace to get warm on cold winter days.
- Cozy blankets. I can never get enough.
- Thrifted jammies. For $3.75, yes, please!
- Finding two Christmas gifts – thrifted – for next year.
- Search strings. Knowing the sort of yoga practice I wanted after a tiring day and just typing in my wishes and – BAM! – a YouTube result. Wanting a quick chocolate chip cookie recipe that would use melted butter. Search. BAM!
- Stopping by for a cup and tea and a chat with my parents.
- Yoga. I genuinely look forward to my time on the mat every day.
- A full morning of work at my favourite coffee shop. Only my second time going in 2024 and I’d love to make this a weekly outing. Earl Grey (bagged) with oat milk on the side. One of my happiest of happy places.
Your turn. Do you buy gifts throughout the year or concentrate all your buying immediately before the holidays? Do you prefer to eat alone or with someone else? Happiest moment this week? Best meal this week?
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J
I saw someone make Muffuletta on a cooking show once, and it looked really good, but like a LOT of work. Your husband’s bowl looks delicious too, and that dessert….wow. Looks SO good.
Your confetti nails are fun!
Elisabeth
I know you love good food and you would LOVE this spot, J!
Sarah
Love all the food pics and the variety of ways food was a happiness booster in a healthy way! I am also remembering why I love a yoga practice, even if it is sometimes hard to find the time. And coffee shop work hours are my favorite, and I have yet to do that in 2024– must realign the calendar. XOXO
PS love your nails and am going to share this trick with Dorothy
Elisabeth
You very much seem like a coffee shop Ninja. I wish we could do coffee shop dates together <3
Dorothy could definitely rock a confetti nail look!
Jan Coates
Your paninis look delicious! See you on Valentine’s Day!
Elisabeth
See you next week. I’ll have to host you some lunchtime and make you Curried Chickpea Wraps <3
Nicole MacPherson
I love the image of Happy Things lining up to give you a hug. I am going to be thinking about that all day.
Elisabeth, I am GOING OUT FOR LUNCH TODAY! I have a girls’ lunch and I am very excited about it. I feel like we are now going-out-for-lunch twins.
I think your nails look great! Very fun and creative!
I can’t help but notice the citrus and strawberry PC sparkling water…I have not yet seen that but you can bet I will be looking next week!
Elisabeth
It’s a great flavour; I’m a big fan. My newest fav flavour from the PC line. (I think Blueberry Pomegranate might be my favourite overall, in the Aha brand). The grapefruit in PC is also a classic and I like it much better than the Bubly grapefruit flavour.
Jenny
Yay for an abundance of Happy Things! I think your nails look great. I’m laughing at A’s comment- honestly, that’s tame compared to what my daughter would probably say. Your dinner out sounds amazing- I LOVE cauliflower dishes like that.
Is your chocolate chip cookie recipe with melted butter by any chance from Sally’s Baking Addiction? I know she has a good one and it’s the recipe I use most often.
I’m sitting in Starbucks right now sipping earl grey- I know it’s probably not as nice as your coffee shop, but I’m happy!
I hope your weekend is full of more happy things : )
Elisabeth
I had an Earl Grey again this morning and it was so delightful!
It wasn’t a Sally’s Baking Addiction melted butter recipe, but now I need to check that out. I forget the site actually – just a small blog, but the recipe had melted butter AND no wait time. They were fine but not amazing (but mostly because I overcooked them – SIGH).
Beckett @ Birchwood Pie
Ah the good ol’ Canadian refrigerator.
Your lunch out looks epic. Yay for weekday lunch dates!
Elisabeth
Thanks again for the chickpea suggestion. It is so delish!
Mary
As someone who LOVES all the snow and snow activities. I have to say I am irrationally jealous of the dumping Atlantic Canada got. In my little corner of Quebec, we have gotten almost no snow all season long and it is so sad. Sledding, snow showing, cross country skiing, making forts… all things that haven’t really happened this year.
Elisabeth
Mary, I would GLADLY send some your way. If only it worked like that in the weather world, right?
NGS
Before we left for Christmas, I bought a bottle of nail polish to paint my nails for the holidays. The bottle of nail polish is still sitting on the coffee table in our living room and I have yet to paint my nails. *sigh* I should make time for it because it’s fun to have pretty nails. I love your confetti nails!
I started a new 5-year line-a-day journal this year with the idea that I would write one happy thing or something new I learned each day. There are some days when I go through the day and really can’t come up with something happy. There are stressful things happening in my life, but I have been so SUPRISED at how hard it is. I don’t know how you write a post like this every week!! It’s admirable, really. GOLD STARS for finding happiness even in stressful times.
Elisabeth
It IS fun to have pretty nails which is exactly why I’ve started doing it.
Also, things like confetti nails don’t really show chips which is the best!
I definitely think it’s easier now than it used to be – gratitude has become more of a habit so I look harder (and, honestly, I think I put myself in the path of things that will make me happier; before I often felt like a martyr to bitterness and now I WANT to be happy so sometimes that means choosing happy things – like getting into comfy jammies or eating chocolate covered almonds or heating up a Magic Bag). That said there are seasons of lament and hardship and I think we need to honour those feelings and sit with them and give them space. I was…not in a good place from June – November of last year and I knew my mental health needed a really big break. And some of that has been purposefully focusing on the good and giving my anxiety a break. Some of those stressful situations are still milling about me but I can’t do anything actively to solve the issues and, for now at least, just need to NOT try to be proactive or anxious. Easier said than done obviously. But all that to say – things feel hard because they are hard and it’s okay to look for happy things while also owning a sadness or disappointment in how life circumstances are playing out. We don’t have to fake happiness or manufacture it. If we can find it great. If not, that’s okay. Life is hard and some situations are just completely, 100% shitty.
Lindsay
I love the confetti nails – they look so fun!! I am working on stockpiling gifts this year vs. the mad dash in November / December which takes some of the joy of it all out of it for me. To be honest, what has enabled this for me is decluttering my office so I have places to store these gifts (and not lose them) (note, the multiple birthday and Christmas gifts I’ve found buried in boxes or in the backs of drawers this past month)… I have it on my list this year to go try and work out of a coffee shop on a morning where I don’t have meetings – it seems so whimsical and fun!
Elisabeth
I have one tote that I use for storing all my gift stash! When I find something, I know exactly where it needs to go!
Working at a coffee shop really elevates the experience! And I love the “white noise” of people chatting and spoons clattering.
Stephany
My brother always tells me that you can’t have low self-esteem when you have kids. They can be SO BRUTAL! I think your confetti nails look amazing and NOT like germs! I was in a habit of doing my nails every week but stopped sometime earlier this year and I need to get back to it because it does bring me joy!
Elisabeth
Your brother is correct in every way. Oof – we had a rough start to our Saturday but I’m trying not to take it personally.
Suzanne
Confetti nails! So pretty and fun!
Your Canadian refrigerator made me giggle.
That Korean BBQ cauliflower looks AMAZING. And that dessert sounds incredible. I loooooove an apple dessert.
When it comes to gift giving, I think about the gift for about a year in advance (depending, I guess, on the occasion; I think about it longer for Christmas and big milestone birthdays than I do about when you turn, say, 43) and come up with multiple ideas and then fret and dither until it is nearly too late to do anything at all and then second guess my idea and buy something generic. It’s super awesome.
I had such a happy day today, Elisabeth! A morning spent with friends, outside in the surprisingly warm and sunny day. Time writing. Time shopping for yummy food. Time with my husband. And now we are about to have a movie night, just the three of us. LOVELY. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Elisabeth
Ha – sounds like you have gift-giving (and fretting) down to a SCIENCE!
Oh I love that you had such a happy day. It sounds lovely. Sun! People you love! Writing! Food! And a movie night? Perfection!
Shelly
I like your response about gratitude really being hone and practiced to truly see some of the good things. In the really hard times it is hard to see and tbh, even in the daily grind I find I get to the end of the day and forget what was good in it.
I love the confetti nails – so fun- and even better that chips wouldn’t show so easily. I forever chip a nail right after painting them which is why I don’t paint them anymore.
The food looks awesome. And we use also use that refrigerator sometimes! When it’s minus 30, not so much as frozen canned drinks will explode (ask how I know that!)
I would love to buy gifts early but the past two years, I have “lost” gifts in my house that I bought a few months before Christmas and then couldn’t find them. I also found a gift last year that I had completely forgotten buying. Maybe putting a list on my phone with the spot I hid it in would help!
Elisabeth
If I paint my nails a solid colour they’re ruined in…a day?
My parents store all sorts of food in the back of their vehicle in the winter!
I have a specific tote I use that is just for gifts. It really helps to have a dedicated space to stash things. That’s the only place I store gifts! If it gets too full, I need to give things away!
Melissa
That lunch looks amazing. I always prefer eating with someone, that’s all part of the fun. Can I just say, snow days and a Canadian refrigerator… no thanks. I’m just not tough enough for that. G and I had a midweek lunch date too, and we both had lamb ragu with ricotta gnocchi which was good.
Elisabeth
I would gladly skip all the snow. My life dream in retirement is definitely to winter somewhere warm. I’m such a chicken.
Lamb ragu sounds amazing!
Lisa’s Yarns
Your meal out with John looked fantastic! Not having to cook is such a gift! The food looks amazing!
We buy so few gifts that I don’t tend to buy them throughout the year. If I had to buy for more people I would be way more apt to buy throughout the use!
This was my birthday week so there were lots of highs like lunches out and lots of birthday texts and emails and such!
Elisabeth
Yay for birthday delights <3
If you come to Nova Scotia, expect a trip to Cumin! There are a variety of GF options.
Grateful Kae
The meal out looked amazing! Oh I am so jealous of that apple dessert. I very rarely order dessert out but I LOVE apple desserts when they are well done. Yummy yummy.
And I absolutely love planting my butt directly on the floor in front of our gas fireplace. Like as close as I can get! haha. Eventually I start sweating and have to move away, but there is literally nothing better when I come in from being cold, turning it on and immediately getting super warm!! It’s the BEST.
My good thing this week is just that I finally took Charlie to the vet after a week of ongoing GI issues. I kept thinking it was sort of running its course but then it got worse and involved throwing up a 4 inch long fabric strap of some sort?!!? (NO idea when he ate that?!) So I freaked out and thought, oh goodness, what else is in there?! So we did an x-ray and they gave him meds, etc. and he immediately improved and has slept through the night the last 2 nights. YAY! It was a very rough week of him waking him 2-3x every night to go out. So that’s my big good thing!!
Elisabeth
This apple dessert was out of this world! Frankly it surprised me how great it was; the company helped 🙂
I’m so glad Charlie is feeling better. How scary and exhausting!
Ally Bean
First, how did I miss curried chickpea salad before this? That’s our kind of you.
Do you buy gifts throughout the year or concentrate all your buying immediately before the holidays? Year round, stored in one place in a drawer in a guest bedroom
Do you prefer to eat alone or with someone else? Alone mostly
Happiest moment this week? Best meal this week? They’re one and the same. Z-D made a roasted pork tenderloin that was delicious.
Elisabeth
It’s so good, Ally. I just made ANOTHER batch today.
I also have one place – and one place only – that I store extra gifts.
Tenderloin is so delicious. I’m salivating just imagining your meal!
San
I am definitely not someone with manicured nails, but I’ve been having fun with some nail wraps lately because they’re so easy to apply and take off… I have zero patience for nail polish to dry LOL
The lunch out looks amazing. I really want to go out to brunch again sometime soon… I haven’t been in so long. We’ve mostly done take-out lately.
My version of the blow-dryer warm up is sitting in front of my space heater, when I am really cold. I close my eyes and imagine it’s a fireplace LOL
Elisabeth
As a child I used to lay right beside my parents little bedroom space heater. I can’t believe I didn’t catch a blanket on fire at some point but I would CRANK it.
I’ve never tried nail wraps but they sound right up my alley.
Kyria @ Travel Spot
I love your Canadian refrigerator; my parents have a very similar one at home! 🙂 Where I live it is not quite cold enough, so we have to keep our food inside around here!
It sounds like you had a good week! I think that sometimes it is hard to think of the good things, but they were there and I love that you are rounding them up each week so that you can remember (or find) them each week! I think it is so easy to dwell on the negative sometimes. I am not saying you need to be all fake-cheerful all of the time or act like life is perfect, but I love your understated way of keeping things positive (and your honesty about the fact that they are not always positive!)
My happy things were –> not getting rained during my Tuesday run (this is the second Tuesday in a row! Yay!), having a great catch up with a friend today and talking honestly about some of our feelings, getting some dental work done that was necessary but not really very fun (so glad to have it behind me!)…and I am looking forward to at least another week of sunshine and a meet up with a friend tomorrow for a walk! Hopeful future happy things!
Elisabeth
Yay for not getting rained on (I hate getting my face wet, so getting stuck in the rain is a nightmare for me).
I have been putting off a trip to the dentist and finally made my appointment (the hardest part, right)? It’s not until March, but it’s on the calendar, so the thinking part of my responsibility is behind me!
coco
Love love your confetti nails, I bet it cheer you up every time you look at it!
Your lunch out with John looks nice and fancy. I also rarely order dessert, unless it’s with the girls as I only need 1-2 bites to finish the meal. We ate out quite a lot the last couple of days, which is nice and fun, and makes me appreciate my boring/bland meals more. I just can’t eat out every day.
most of the days I eat breakfast alone, lunch with colleagues most of the time, and dinner with the family. I think I like this mix. I prefer dining with many others, not with just one person as it means I’ll have to think about what to talk about. I prefer to intervene/talk when I feel like, not that I need to. With husband, it’s more relaxed and I do most of the talking as he’s more introvert than me.
Elisabeth
They do make me so happy!!!
Kate
I laughed out loud at the germs comment! I don’t think they look anything like germs but sounds 100% like something my 10 year old would say!
That restaurant sounds amazing. What a gift both to spend time with your husband and to enjoy such delicious food! We rarely eat out and when we do, we’re loyal to a few places that we know have good food. It’s been a long time since we’ve ventured outside the familiar and struck gold! Fingers crossed 2024 brings us a little more adventure in that regard.
My happy things: getting all dressed up for a benefit dinner with my husband this weekend, my mother-in-law unexpectedly coming out to watch the girls for the event so we didn’t need to pay a babysitter, a very busy day yesterday that I was tired just thinking about but ultimately ended up going very smoothly, and discovering there’s a local half marathon being held in July when we’ll be out in Washington state visiting my family that I maaaaay be able to coax a few family members into running with me! (Several of them have done sprint triathlons together and have previously run half marathons — if we run it “together” I will definitely be in the back of the pack, but it would be great motivation to keep up with training!
Elisabeth
Oh I’m so excited for your half-marathon potential. That sounds so fun. I loved reading about your Turkey Trot adventures, new baby and all.
And yay for getting dressed up and not having to pay a babysitter. Plus, bonus grandma time for the girls <3
Anne
Wholeheartedly agree that sometimes, you can’t just force the happy. Particularly when the crappy overwhelms it. Some periods in life are just… not happy, and not a time you are feeling particularly grateful. (This is me, at least…) Leaning into that – even if only for a short time – usually makes me feel better, and then I am able to shift my perspective to start to find the bright spots in the days again. Loved reading all of your happy things. It’s so much better when they just… line up. 🙂