Things That Make Me Happy

When I was in college, I discovered a book titled “14,000 Things to Be Happy About,” by Barbara Ann Kipfer. I carried the book in my backpack for most of my four years of school, because it always made me smile to read a page of it. I still pull it off the bookshelf once in a while. At this point, it’s a tattered, worn, and well-read copy of this book.

There is actually a really fun website based on the book as well. It makes me happy too.

In honor of Barbara Ann Kipfer, I thought I would write my own mini-collection of “Things That Make Me Happy.” Though it is much shorter than her list of 14,000 things spanning 612 happy pages, I hope you enjoy it.

Darcy’s List of Things to be Happy About

It’s Not 14,000 Things but Hey, Who is THAT Happy?

• How excited my dogs get when I come home, even if I was only gone for 5 minutes
• The way the sand feels between my toes
• Wearing a baseball cap in the summer
• Going to yard sales on Saturday mornings
• Live music
• Shopping online
• Finding something I’ve been looking for at a thrift store
• Drinking coffee – lots of it
• Fat Tire beer
• Working from home
• Memories of my dad
• Puppies, and dogs who act like puppies
• My family
• My carefree fishing and hunting boyfriend
• Listening to rain on the roof when it’s dark outside
• Opening the windows on a warm spring day
• Sitting on the beach with a chair and a book
• Drinking rum in South Dakota with my family
• Thinking about old friends and the crazy stuff we used to do
• Campfires and camping
• The fact that I remind my grandma and my mom of my dad
• Making dinner and trying new recipes
• The day a new magazine comes in the mail
• Opening Christmas stockings on New Year’s Eve
• Pots of bamboo sitting around the house
• Eating seafood
• Waiting for the pizza guy to come
• Buying stuff at The Home Depot because it makes me feel like such an adult
• Thinking about summer during the winter
• Hearing the UPS guy drop off a package on the front doorstep
• Having a job that I am good at and enjoy
• Having a fireplace
• Lightning bugs. Or fireflies, whatever you want to call them
• Playing Phase 10 with Marshall, even though I usually lose
• The little green lizards (anoles) that live in my backyard in the summer
• Having money in my savings account
• Owning my house
• The yellow walls in my office, which I painted myself
• Shopping at the weekend flea market for produce
• The fact that I have lived in South Dakota, Colorado, Texas and North Carolina
• My handful of really good friends
• Reading books
• Collecting shells on the beach
• The smell of flowers
• Crochet projects
• Banana pancakes with peanut butter and chocolate chips
• Looking at the flowers in my backyard
• Walking my dogs
• My 1997 Purple Ford Probe that my parents gave me
• Fireworks on the Fourth of July
• Relaxing on Friday night

And these, my friends, are just a few things that I have to be happy about. 🙂

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