The Happy Box

So, I decided I needed to post something. . .and I've got nothing. For the last couple of days I have been entertaining my friendless children. So far we have played cards, had a picnic in our yard, I pushed them on the rope swing, we made friendship bracelets (And let me just say, those were a lot harder than I remember when I cranked them out by the dozens in fourth grade!) we had girls' night with popcorn and a movie, and I have shuttled Hannah to golf camp and piano lessons. Beyond that, house cleaning and laundry. So you can see how uninteresting THAT post would be (or is).



But, I was looking back at entries in my blurb photo book that I keep kind of like a journal/photo album, and I came across this cute entry about Siggy, so I decided to post it. For those of you who have heard the story, I will try to be more original tomorrow. . .



Monday April 7, 2008


I think occasionally it is good to remind oneself how good life really is. It is far too easy to get caught up in the laundry and house cleaning and the children's routines and squabbles and forget why we do what we do and how happy we ought to be that we get to.


The other day I was eating lunch with Signe and she turned to me and said, "I need a happy box."


I asked her what that was and she said, "A box where I put things that make me happy."


I asked her what she would put in her box. She thought a moment and said, "Barbies and pollies and a picture of my mom and dad hugging." I thought that was really sweet. It reminded me that simple things can make you happy. And that little eyes and ears are always more aware than you think. So we spent the next few minutes thinking up things that make us happy.

Here are a few things we came up with:

Squeezy Hugs
Giggles
Spring Blossoms
Sunshine
Whales
Pollies
Playing Games
Playing in the rain with an umbrella
Charly
The color purple (Signe)
The colors blue and white (me)
Clean White Sheets (me)
Ham and Cheese sandwiches (with Ranch)
Playing princess dress up
The "then I will" game with daddy
Ice cream
Visiting Manna
Fruit (Grapes, apples & banana's mostly)
Hannah
Daddy
Mommy
A clean house (Me, of course)
Family Walks
Dark chocolate & raspberries (me)
Crisp Autumn air (me)
Reading a good book
Hot Chocolate and homemade marshmallows
Homemade sugar cookies
Listening to the birds in my yard

The "then I will" game is hilarious. Sig and Rob came up with it. One person says something like:

"I will take all your underwear and tie them to a kite and fly them in the sky and people with laugh."

Then the other person will say something like: "Then I will ride your bike to the alligator pond and feed it to the alligator."

Each person must one up the other. You can't try to undo what the other person has said (that is Hannah's problem. She gets annoyed with what you are going to do and tries to argue it or "fix" it with her "then I will" statement. I can't think fast enough or with near as much creativity as Rob OR Sig, so we have been banned from playing. We usually play in the car and Hannah and I just laugh while Rob and Sig threatened near death and destruction with a smile!