When upon life's billows

I've decided that I must the kind of person whose moods fluctuate so wildly that I don't even know what normal is. As in, maybe I don't even know that I'm crazy. Or better yet, wildly fluctuating moods IS (my) normal, therefore, I will endeavor to embrace it. I'm just going to hug the good times so I'm near about squeezing the life out of them, doing barbaric yawp-ish carpe diem type stuff, and then when those moods sneak up on me where I'm like, "I have no talent, I have no friends, BUT I DO HAVE zits," then (and please avert your eyes if you are above vulgarity but sometimes there is only one way to explain things), I will kick that mood in the nuts.


Let me be clear here: I am not prone to depression. Anxiety, yes. Depression . . . not so much. These are fleeting moods that annoy me only because they're also recurring. When I have these little talks with myself and then I realize, "OH, YEAH! I HAVE LOTS OF BLESSINGS!" I am generally fine within a very short period of time. It's just annoying that I even need to remind myself sometimes that my life is pretty awesome.


The cure (for me, because remember we're not discussing anything clinical-grade here), is free, fast, and instantaneous: counting blessings. Trite but TRIED and TRUE.


So I am going to count some now. 


1. My good moods outweigh my self-pitiful ones by a lot. Think mountains and molehills. I have lots of big, sparkly mountainy days. I'd say . . . 90/10 split. But I'll ask Kenny. He's better at math.


2. I am living every dream I've ever had for myself. This should probably be a dramatic #10, the clincher, the ooh-la-la. But it's what I thought of next and I don't want to edit.


3. My kids love to hug me. Even my twelve-year-old will accidentally say he loves me sometimes.


4. My husband adores me and I know it. 


5. I have really fast Internet access and I can connect to amazing people who have made my life richer and better because of it.


6. Books that make my soul happy deep down. Finishing up Peace Like a River again. I love that book so hard.


7. Bathrobe and hot chocolate days. I declared one this morning. I feel like a genius right now, because nothing goes better with a rainy morning. And for dinner: gumbo. A perfectly bookended day.


8. Old things. I love stuff that's been around. At least in small doses. I love our old piano and our old books.


9. Roses. I didn't used to love them. I still don't want them in a bouquet (bring on the tulips or daisies). But we inherited a ton of them in our yard and there is something pretty perfect about waking up to a testimony of Heavenly Father every morning because that's what those bright, gorgeous things remind me of every time I glimpse them outside my window. (Wow. I know that paragraph just made you wonder if you accidentally started reading someone else's blog in the middle of my post. Nope. Still me. Roses are pretty. Just saying.)


10. Kenny. Oh, look at that. I really did save the best for last.


And now, unrelated to anything, totally unprompted by me, Mary at The Sweet Bookshelf is giving away a prize pack of both of my books on Kindle. It's super easy to win and you can check it out here. If you already have my books, (clearly you love me and also) you might like to gift them to some Kindle-owning friend if you win.