It's the simple things

I've been noticing lately that the simple things in life are the things that make me happiest. We were talking at Book Club the other night about how the sum of all the bad things that happen don't come close to equaling the good--even though the bad things seem to weigh so much more. The good things are those small things that happen every day that we hardly notice. Or maybe they are the things we notice but forget almost instantly. Jill's art challenge a few weeks ago got me thinking--about goals, yes, but also that lately I hardly devote any time to creative endeavors. I've felt the lack of it in my life. I used to love the feeling of designing, creating and then finishing a scrapbook layout or a project. How did I get to the point that even the ideas of starting was burdensome? I decided to do something about it. I sat down and scrapbooked. Here's the thing, I felt very accomplished for having made an idea into something tangible. But something else happened--I felt like I got a little piece of myself back. I was no longer just Kaitlin's Mom and Jeremy's wife. I was me, doing something for myself, that only I could do. It was exhilarating. The other good thing about it, was that I accomplished this through scrapbooking about the simple joy I get from the name by which Kaitlin refers to herself, which is KK. It's like I went on a mini journey, came full circle and found out a little something about myself. All without leaving my craft room. To commemorate my little self discovery, I decided to display my work on this cute little easel I bought at IKEA years ago. A daily reminder of how I want my life to be. Now, that makes me happy.