Okay, enough with the bullshit and hate and animosity and violence and stupidity in the world.

I am making small but deliberate changes in my life, and one of those changes is to deliberately look for and find something … ANYthing … that makes me smile, even a little bit.

I don’t get out much, for a variety of reasons, mostly because of money-and-mobility issues.  But there are things in my local errands and even at home that give me a reason to smile.

Here are a couple of things.

Several years ago, when I still had a membership card for Sam’s Club, I got a giant container of pretzel sticks.  Even giving a BUNCH to my daughter, what was left lasted a long, long time.  But since then I have been using the canister to hold bagged dry cat food.  Handy, convenient, and it keeps the bugs out.  But today in particular this gives me a bit of joy because it is FULL! It hasn’t been fully full in ages, maybe a year or more….?  Usually it is half-full when I put in a new bag, but more often it seems like a quarter-full or less.   That I was able to buy two bags at once (it was on sale!) and even had to shake it down to finish emptying the 2nd bag … wow.

No, no … I realize it is just cat food, and something I get all the time.  But seeing the container so completely full speaks of a bit of abundance, which is a rare commodity around here.

And another thing that gives me joy today is this…..

Yup, it’s my stack of ‘bar mop’ towels that I use mostly for dyeing clean-up but also for everything else around the house because I refuse to pay for paper towels.   I have 6 or 7 dozen or more, and right now today, except for the one on the refrigerator and the 2 at my bedside, they are ALL CLEAN at the same time.   They will get used and soiled and dirtied quickly, but they were piling up because of our recently cold wet weather.   I washed half yesterday and half today and now they are done and that makes me feel SO GOOD.

Oh, and a bonus bit of happiness — I was actually able to get all the things on the chalkboard when I went to market, including a new flex-tip lighter for the stove (these things last forEVER) AND a new little lightbulb for the refrigerator (FINALLY).

I’m not flush or anything, and had to get small sizes or fewer-than-normal of the things I did get, and managed to fill only half my granny cart and kept the budget under $70.   But still….  I have some things to smile about for today.